LEBANON

Pandora Box Has Been Opened, and No One is Trying to Close It

by Christian Tomine / October 26th, 2024

Lately the response of the world community to global events has become more and more ambiguous. While some countries define specific actions as an act of terrorism, the others consider them to be merely the way of protecting the interests of a certain state.

Thus, on September 17-18 Lebanon was shocked by the series of pager explosions. As a result, at least 30 people were killed, including an eight-year old girl, and more than 3500 wounded. The Lebanese government condemned the attack as a “criminal Israeli aggression” and demanded the response of the UN. However, while the whole world should have unanimously called those intentional explosions as an act of terrorism, the UN, as well as the EU and the USA, just expressed their strong concern over the situation. More than a month has passed, but the situation has not changed. It seems that the heavyweights of the international community have turned a blind eye on the bloody murders and wounding of civilians.

Once again, this situation stressed the subjective nature of the assessment as the US probably wished to cover up its political partner, Israel, that had acted as an aggressor. The reason for such a response might be its awareness of the imminent Israeli attack against the members of Hezbollah, who support the Palestinians. It is confirmed by the fact that Israel told the USA in advance, on September 17, about the beginning of the operation in Lebanon. Despite the US government having claimed they had no idea about the details of the operation, it’s really hard to believe.  But the main question is whether the USA took part in preparations for that bloody attack.

Pagers were manufactured under the Taiwanese brand “Gold Appolo” either in Taiwan or in the EU. In both cases, we can safely assume that the Israel secret service had an access to the devices at the assembly stage, before they were sent to Lebanon. Taking into the consideration the previous close cooperation between the Israeli and American secret services, one can reasonably assume that the US had also provided its assistance to its counterparts at some stage of the operation.

The fact that the Israeli terrorist act has opened a real Pandora box is now of great concern.

Time passes and the lack of a univocal response from the world community may soon become a reason for others to also conduct such “operations.” Then it becomes eminently apparent that not only communication devices but any household appliances or gadgets from our everyday life can be used as the explosive vessels.FacebookTwitterReddiEmail

Christian Tomine as a child lived in the Middle East for many years due to his parents' work. During this time he learned one of the region's languages and became acquainted with the culture and history of the region. Christian can be reached at: Christian_Tomine@protonmail.com. Read other articles by Christian.