Israel lets thousands of pagers explode in Lebanon

On Tuesday, thousands of pagers exploded across Lebanon. It was apparently a coordinated attack by Israel on members of the Hezbollah militia.

The unprecedented attack reportedly killed 12 people, including a young girl, and injured at least 3,000. Videos and photos posted on social media showed the aftermath: ruptured bellies and bloody groins. As expected, injuries to the eyes and hands also seem to be common. Mojtaba Amani, Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, is said to have lost one eye and injured the other in the attack.

Critical malfunction. Despite initial speculation that Israel had detonated the pagers using a signal that overheated the devices' lithium batteries – a signal that could be used to attack any similar device – the explosive power of the detonations suggested something else was at play. Lithium batteries can burn violently if damaged or overheated, but they do not explode.

Instead, it appears that Israeli Mossad agents tampered with the pagers to introduce a small amount of explosives. American officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: The New York Times that “explosive material weighing approximately 30 to 60 grams was implanted next to the battery in each pager,” along with a switch that could be activated remotely.

The pagers were purchased from Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese company, but manufactured in Hungary by a firm called BAC Consulting, Reuters reports. The manipulation that turned the devices into miniature bombs appears to have taken place at the manufacturing level, and BAC Consulting does not appear to be an ordinary technology company, to say the least: According to Reuters, the company's “registered activities are wide-ranging, from publishing computer games to IT consulting and crude oil extraction.” That definitely sounds like a facade to me.

The vicious circle of violence continues. In a statement after the attack, Hezbollah announced a “reckoning” for Israel in response to the attack. Miri Eisin, a fellow at the Israel-based International Institute for Counterterrorism, told the Just that the attack was an “astonishing tactical event” that seemed to lack a clear strategic objective.

Turning personal communications devices into small, automated suicide bombers and then detonating them in public places with little regard for collateral damage seems more like terrorism than something that could be construed as self-defense.

Is it sinking? In other news, the US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a cut in its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday. The big question, however, is how much the cut will be.

To combat inflation, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023. As a result, the base rate rose from nearly 0 to over 5 percent, and the bank's leadership has so far resisted calls for rate cuts. A rate cut could be good news for consumers looking to make big purchases – the Fed's base rate impacts the economy in the form of higher borrowing costs when someone needs a car loan, mortgage, business loan or other form of debt – but lower rates could also spur a return of inflation.

Senator JD Vance (R–Ohio) has some sensible thoughts on immigration. Or rather: He once had it.

“A significant part of Republican immigration policy revolves around the ability to deport 12 million people (or 'deport them themselves'),” Vance wrote in a 2012 blog post unearthed Tuesday by CNN's Andrew Kaczynski. “Think about it: We conservatives (rightly) distrust the government when it comes to efficiently managing corporate loans and regulating our food supply, and yet we supposedly believe it can deport millions of undocumented aliens. That notion is simply ridiculous. The same is true of too many parts of the party platform.”

Bull's eye. Too bad today's version of Vance is fully committed to a mass deportation plan that would require a massive expansion of government power. Age usually makes people wiser, but Vance should listen to his younger self.

Scenes from New York (via Washington, DC): I wasn't sure I could harbor any more contempt for federal bureaucrats than I already did, and then I read about how some Department of Education employees had stolen Disney World tickets that were supposed to be intended for homeless children.

Linda M. Wilson, a New York City Department of Education employee who carried out the fraud, “used the names of homeless students to forge permission slips and then forged parents' signatures on the papers, witnesses told investigators,” the New York Post reports.

The cost of the trips was covered by taxpayers through a $300,000 federal grant. But I have other questions, like why are we using federal grants to send homeless children to Disney World instead of helping them escape homelessness?

Fire them all.

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