The Israeli government did not tamper with the Hezbollah devices that exploded, defense and intelligence officials say. It manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse.
In Lebanon, as Israel picked off senior Hezbollah commandos with targeted assassinations, their leader came to a conclusion: If Israel was going high-tech, Hezbollah would go low. It was clear, a distressed Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, said, that Israel was using cellphone networks to pinpoint the locations of his operatives.
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Israeli intelligence officials saw an opportunity.
Even before Mr. Nasrallah decided to expand pager usage, Israel had put into motion a plan to establish a shell company that would pose as an international pager producer.
By all appearances, B.A.C. Consulting was a Hungary-based company that was under contract to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, it was part of an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. They said at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.
Which is precisely why Hamas escalated the Israeli-Palestine conflict last October. They were afraid that Israeli efforts towards fostering peace and cooperation with the other Arab countries were being successful.
Peace will be impossible to accomplish until the Middle-East at large accepts the existence of Israel, and Hamas have in turn proven that is impossible as long as militant islamist extremists with the primary goal of killing as many Israelis as possible (as opposed to securing safety, prosperity and freedom for Palestinians) rule in either of the two Palestinian territories.
It goes both ways. Like Guterres said, Hamas doesn’t exist in a vacuum. This is not to say that terrorism is justified, or that i agree with Hamas’ actions, but Hamas in itself only has the power it has because of the antagonizing of so many peoples ever since Israel was founded. I believe there is a place for Israel in the world, but probably never as a Jewish nation. Simply put, the region was never just Jewish or just Muslim, it was always multi cultural and multi religious. As such the future of Israel lies as a multi cultural and multi religious nation. I understand other Muslim states are also organized towards mainly Muslims as Israel wants to be organized mainly towards Jews, but the way Israel was founded, by taking a land that had a strong Muslim presence, there is no possible way to create a state like Israel wants without a tremendous amount of bloodshed and cruelty that will tarnish the entire history of Judaism and Israel itself, as well as the US by association.