The smoothest brains in the world are stumping for Israeli attacks on civilians again, this time after Israel terrorized Lebanon and Syria with pager explosions across each country the past two days that has terrifying implications for the future. The Lebanon health ministry said at least 37 people were killed and thousands more were injured, including multiple children who died. This is how many in the Western commentariat have chosen to portray Israel setting off a bunch of bombs in public spaces where for Splinter, Roqayah Chamseddine reported a doctor said “In my 25 years of practice, I have never removed as many eyes as yesterday.”
From a law of war standpoint, Israel’s pager bombs represent one of the most precisely targeted strikes in the history of warfare. I can’t think of a single widespread strike on an armed force that’s embedded in a civilian population that’s been more precise. It’s remarkable.
— David French (@DavidAFrench) September 17, 2024
It’s hard to think of a more sophisticated and targeted attack on a terror group than the pagers. But Israel will still be condemned. So why can’t the critics just be honest. They don’t believe in her right to self-defence, and never will.
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) September 17, 2024
📟 Paging those following the news 📟
Friendly reminder: the only ones vulnerable are those carrying Hezbollah’s equipment and technology used to coordinate and plan terror attacks. If you’re not a Hezbollah terrorist, you are safe.
— CIJA (@CIJAinfo) September 17, 2024
Sure, Israel’s attack was targeted in the sense that they found an extremely clever way to plant explosives on Hezbollah operatives. But it takes a truly deranged mind to believe that setting those explosives off in grocery stores, funerals, and other public spaces is “targeted.” Do you not know how explosions work?
This is North Korean-level propaganda. Just a full-blown “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for” move from Benjamin Netanyahu’s most ardent bootlickers. There are videos of bombs going off in grocery stores and harming innocent bystanders across the entire internet, and many in the Western press are largely ignoring that fact to portray the attack as what happened before it injured thousands of people across Lebanon.
As Dave Levitan wrote for Splinter yesterday, this “looks like an attack meant to sow fear across not just groups of combatants but the country’s entire populace — something one would generally call terrorism.”
It is terrorism. If Israel had waited for Hezbollah operatives to gather away from innocent civilians and set off the explosions that only harmed combatants (or at least made a serious attempt to minimize civilian casualties), sure, this falls under the rules of war. But they didn’t, at least in part because reporting indicates they were worried that this operation was going to get found out, so they decided that setting off explosions in crowded supermarkets and funerals was their best option.
The devices may have been targeted at Hezbollah, but portraying the attacks as “targeted” at them flies in the face of all video evidence that anyone can verify for themselves. Explosions in public spaces are not “targeted” attacks. Like with the Iraq War, much of the high-profile American mainstream press and commentariat has largely abdicated what little journalistic integrity they have left in favor of pure jingoism and stenography for the powerful since October 7th. Israel is committing a genocide while launching terrorist attacks in two other countries, all while agitating for war with Iran. It’s very clear where Benjamin Netanyahu and his army of enablers in the West want to push us, and history will remember them for the monsters they have proven themselves to be.