Fantastic piece! I similarly have been in awe and amazement at what Israel has successfully done, but appreciate the expanded technical analysis. Nevertheless, it’s nothing short of fascinating and thought-provoking.
I have always had great admiration for Israeli innovations in electronics. As the statement goes, necessity is the mother of invention And when most of the world has been trying to exterminate you for thousands of years, the necessity is definitely there. Thanks for the background.
I'm full-on team Israel as well but others I know are not, saying that this is a war outside our country so why should they pick a side. Oh those Millennial's! I think this was an absolute genius attack...war is horrible anyway you look at it and it is always asymmetrical in the end. Hope we are seeing an end now.
It has come to my attention that Hezbollah has rid itself of all electronic communication systems. Hezbollah has replaced their former communication systems with Carrier Pigeons. Unbeknownst to Hezbollah, Mossad has spent years teaching Carrier Pigeons how to talk.
This may not be widely known, but Israelis used Carrier Pigeons during their War of Independence, for safe communications. And also long afterwards. I think by now there are some articles and maybe a book about that.
I subscribe for Jen and Matt but you guys keep adding these additional commenters with incredible takes. This is the best analysis I have read about this clever attack. Great work.
I loved reading this piece. Thanks for sharing your technical knowledge. I too was amazed by the ingenuity of this attack, even though it might give us cause to fear our own technology.
There was very little collateral damage and the targets themselves were terrorists. I suggest that groups that don't want to be targeted by Israel stop targeting Israel. This was a brilliant attack.
So Israel just cannot win. Gets slammed for ‘indiscriminate ‘ killing and again is slammed for as far from indiscriminate killing in a war as is possible.
All is fair in love and war. Palestinians started it, so now they are finally understanding what they are up against. If civilians don't want to die, don't go to Hamas funerals and stand next to Hamas members. Don't allow them in your home. Guilt by association is a thing, so is collateral damage.
Think of it this way, every 12 year old child of a Hamas member dead is one less future Hamas member.
These devices contained a tiny amount of explosive - dangerous and even fatal if they're in direct contact with somebody's body, but insufficient to cause serious harm beyond that. They were also put into devices that were only going to be used for secure communications within a terrorist group, used exclusively by its members. That's a lot of regard for "collateral casualties", as opposed to the suicide bombings and rocket attacks that Hezbollah aims at Israeli civilians
Some people take the view that Israel should NEVER be allowed to respond to attacks. They must not attack Hezbollah or Hamas or counter-attack. The Jews should just take it on the chin every time they are attacked.
But here's the thing... if you take the view that Israel cannot attack Hezbollah if collateral damage is possible, then you're really just saying the first thing with different words because all Hezbollah has to do is take a kid with them to "work" every single day.
Sure, no prob, kill'em on the battlefield, training camps, etc. Not supermarkets and bus stops. No one is right here. However, Isreal does not occupy the moral high ground, they're all terrorists.
If this happened in Canada, you might have a different opinion, or not.
Isreal, is not a terrorist state, although terrorism was a tactic used against the British, ya know when someone is living on land you believe to be yours. I simply believe that Isreal ça employ tactics that would never be contemplated by most Western Democracies it seems there is a double standard with regards to Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. What Isreal did amounts to a terrorist act,.
I submit that not only would the west contemplate all of the tactics used by Israel, we HAVE done them in the past when we found it necessary for our own safety.
That we don't do some of them quite as often now is a reflection of the power and security of the west, not that we do things any differently.
*********
I ask you this... what do you suppose would happen to Mexico if the Mexican army joined by eager Mexican citizens had invaded Texas, gone on a rape & murder spree of civilians, filmed their raping and stabbing of American women including sexual torture and when finally driven out had taken hostages back to Mexico. Accounting for population size, the death toll in the USA would be over 38,000 people. And then the Americans watched as the much of the world celebrated this as a wonderful event and "resistance" against American hegemony.
Now imagine that the US isn't quite as powerful as it is now.. still powerful enough to utterly POUND Mexico to dust, but not so strong that they can do it in less than a year.
Do you suppose that the Americans would be having a cease fire and letting the Mexican army re-arm? Or do you suppose something else?
That's been my point from day 1. What happened to Israel is disgusting. Israel's response is disgusting. I have yet to hear from anyone who is upset about it what they think a reasonable response would look like. Some have suggested Israel should have sat down at the table.....until reminded what the US did after 9/11.
My conclusion is that war is disgusting, it's easier to cheer for the underdog, and that the carnage will continue until both sides want to stop the needleless deaths.
This was right up Phil's alley, and only a matter of time before he appeared to help explain it. Good piece, and I'll be very interested when more of the "whodunit" details trickle out in the coming months and years. As a fellow ham, I'm always here for nerd content. De VY2HF / W1PJ / M7JHF
The biggest concern I had when I heard about this attack was the possibility that somebody had figured out how to reliably cause a normal lithium ion battery to explode. That seemed like a very remote possibility, as such batteries are designed, constructed, and tested to prevent that sort of failure via international standards such as IEC62133-2. However, it would be an extremely serious problem affecting billions of devices worldwide.
More probable was a modified battery pack or charger that could create an explosion. Again, didn't seem very likely as the batteries are relatively small and don't contain a lot of energy. Getting them to explode reliably and consistently wouldn't be easy. This is still concerning, though, as it'd be much more difficult to detect those sorts of modifications.
When it was reported that these devices had been planted with explosives, I was much less concerned. That's a new spin on a very old tactic. It also requires a lot of effort to do, and it's something that could be detected and countered. I wouldn't want to be responsible for technology and cybersecurity in Hezbollah right now...
If you think this act was a triumph for Israel you are living in a bubble. Israel is taking a flamethrower to world opinion. It is an utterly deranged strategy. Combined with near simultaneous footage of Israeli soldiers kicking bound human beings off a rooftop I think there may be no coming back, they have shot past apartheid South Africa in the world revulsion league tables.
Kathleen, when has Israel NOT been the recipient of a "world flamethrower" of stupidity. The one Middle Eastern non-Islamic democracy, formally targeted by its neighbours to be driven into the sea, is the size of New Jersey.
They've never had meaningful world support and they clearly don't give a damn now--after Oct. 7 and even more world condemnation. They've said "Never Again" and mean it.
You debate with history, Kathleen, and you lose. World support for Israel is best displayed by the UNHRC..."Since the UNHRC's creation in 2006, it has resolved almost as many resolutions condemning Israel alone than on issues for the rest of the world combined."
So, yes, the world is stupid for not fully supporting Israel and, by the way, has already taken the action you suggested.
I don't agree that Israel is taking a flamethrower to world opinion. We have watched the woke folk take a flamethrower to Israel ever since the Hamas attach last October. I would argue a very carefully orchestrated flamethrower at that. If you believe Israel is low in world opinion where to you place Hamas?
Hamas is not a nation state. Is Israel putting Hamas as its peer benchmark? It is a strategy but not a wise one if Israel wants a respected seat among nations.
How many times has Israel been condemned or sanctioned by the UN in the last five or ten years? Too many to count us the right answer. In Jen's artfully coined phrase an unrelated Line post, it's "fuckit o'clock" for Israel.
You honestly believe what Israel is doing right now is making it *safer*? The absolute systematic destruction of world sympathy from its utterly disproportionate reaction to Oct 7 has been a good and smart policy for a tiny nation to follow? I cannot understand this it seems to me strategically unhinged. “Fuck you, world opinion!” was dumb and has damaged the post 9/11 US. For tiny Israel to do the same thing after Oct 7 and expect better results is crazy.
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. Israel is surrounded by enemies whose unabashed goal is their extinction. I don't know what Israel "winning" this war looks like, I'm pretty sure what losing does.
If we're going to talk about "world opinion", we all need to first recognize and acknowledge that a significant part of that "world opinion" is from Jew hating racists and completely discount their opinion. You and I don't care that the KKK thinks Barrack Obama was a bad President and neither should we care what the Jew-hating racists think of Israel.
Haters gonna hate as they say.
And we DO have a lot of Jew-hating racists in Canada. If you had a neighbour who said he was really against crime... always insisted he was anti-crime and not racist... but then you noticed that 95% of his effort was spent telling you about specific crimes committed by dark skinned immigrants to Canada, you'd know that the man was a racist despite his denials.
It's the same with "anti-Zionists" in Canada.
Look at how often they talk about the lack of human rights, freedom of religion and civil liberties throughout the Muslim world vs. how much time they spend talking about Israel. Look at how often they talk about the need to divest from China and break educational and cultural ties with China vs. how much they talk about the need for the same with Israel.
That tells you when you're dealing with a Jew-hating racist whose view should be rejected outright.
Finally... Canadians who protest against Israel in Jewish neighbourhoods and outside Jewish schools and synagogues? That's racism without question.
***********
Given how widespread anti-Jewish racism is in Canada and the world, how much should I care what the world thinks? How much should Israel care?
Should Jagmeet Singh change his policies because a bunch of Sikh hating racists don't like him?
This would be a more persuasive argument if there were not so many Jewish critics of Israel.
I am sure some people criticise Israel just because they are anti-semitic. But there are really no black members of the KKK outside of Dave Chapelle skits. The case of Israel is not like that: there are a lot of Jewish critics of Israeli policy. So while anti-semitism undoubtedly does motivate some criticism of Israeli policy, criticism of Israeli policy is not at all reducible to anti-semitism.
This would be a more persuasive argument if there were not so many black critics of crime.
Do you see my point? Of COURSE there's nothing wrong with criticizing Israel any more than there's something wrong with criticizing criminals.
BUT we can conclude from their obsessive focus than MANY MANY MANY of the so-called "anti-zionists" in Canada are anti-Jewish racists. How do we know this?
It's exactly like that guy who says he just objects to crime... but spends almost all his time telling you about specific crimes committed by dark skinned immigrants. NOTHING wrong with criticizing criminals ... but that guy is a racist.
If he talked a lot about all crime regardless of the skin colour of the criminal, you could be pretty sure that he wasn't racist.
And similarly if those insisting on sanctions against Israel and academic boycotts of Israel were ALSO demanding sanctions and academic boycotts against China, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, the UAE etc, you could be pretty sure that they weren't racists.
But when you see what we actually see in Canada... academic departments that demand a boycott of Israel, but never talks about an academic boycott of any place else including the places with some of the most illiberal laws you can imagine... you know that whatever else might be going on, those so-called "anti-zionists" are in in fact anti-Jewish racists.
... just like that guy who insists he's also "just anti-crime".
Years ago I had a South African teacher explain to me in great detail just how apartheid controlled nearly all aspects of the lives of the nonwhite population. Israel has nothing near to the regime that the non white population of South Africa had to live and survive under.
I wish all the people calling Israel an apartheid state, would look it up to see just what an apartheid state was actually about.
I spent many a Friday evening at the home of my childhood best friend sharing shabbat dinner. The memory of her mom lighting the candles and singing the prayers brings tears to my eyes.
Fantastic piece! I similarly have been in awe and amazement at what Israel has successfully done, but appreciate the expanded technical analysis. Nevertheless, it’s nothing short of fascinating and thought-provoking.
One of the best & most insightful I’ve read in a long, long time.
I have always had great admiration for Israeli innovations in electronics. As the statement goes, necessity is the mother of invention And when most of the world has been trying to exterminate you for thousands of years, the necessity is definitely there. Thanks for the background.
I'm full-on team Israel as well but others I know are not, saying that this is a war outside our country so why should they pick a side. Oh those Millennial's! I think this was an absolute genius attack...war is horrible anyway you look at it and it is always asymmetrical in the end. Hope we are seeing an end now.
What a fascinating article! Thanks for your nerdy information, I very much appreciate it. And yes, yes as you say, it makes me genuinely uneasy...
It has come to my attention that Hezbollah has rid itself of all electronic communication systems. Hezbollah has replaced their former communication systems with Carrier Pigeons. Unbeknownst to Hezbollah, Mossad has spent years teaching Carrier Pigeons how to talk.
Let's not bring PETA into this, please. Things are crazy enough as it is.
The world does not need exploding pigeons ;-)
Your comment is very funny. I laughed.
This may not be widely known, but Israelis used Carrier Pigeons during their War of Independence, for safe communications. And also long afterwards. I think by now there are some articles and maybe a book about that.
NS. I did not know that. We do have a solid group of people on here with knowledge on many different topics.
And they were used during the Second World War by the intelligence services and I believe, the British Army, as well.
Wonderful explanation. The Israeli who developed this idea is/was brilliant.
I subscribe for Jen and Matt but you guys keep adding these additional commenters with incredible takes. This is the best analysis I have read about this clever attack. Great work.
I loved reading this piece. Thanks for sharing your technical knowledge. I too was amazed by the ingenuity of this attack, even though it might give us cause to fear our own technology.
Disgusting, another low for Humanity.
Taking out enemies is fine, blowing them up in public with no regard for "collateral casualties" is Terrorism, Bravo.
There was very little collateral damage and the targets themselves were terrorists. I suggest that groups that don't want to be targeted by Israel stop targeting Israel. This was a brilliant attack.
3000 injuries, 9 and 12 yr old Children and probably more, you have a different opinion, that's fine, doesn't make you right. Have a good day
So Israel just cannot win. Gets slammed for ‘indiscriminate ‘ killing and again is slammed for as far from indiscriminate killing in a war as is possible.
OK, then…..
All is fair in love and war. Palestinians started it, so now they are finally understanding what they are up against. If civilians don't want to die, don't go to Hamas funerals and stand next to Hamas members. Don't allow them in your home. Guilt by association is a thing, so is collateral damage.
Think of it this way, every 12 year old child of a Hamas member dead is one less future Hamas member.
These devices contained a tiny amount of explosive - dangerous and even fatal if they're in direct contact with somebody's body, but insufficient to cause serious harm beyond that. They were also put into devices that were only going to be used for secure communications within a terrorist group, used exclusively by its members. That's a lot of regard for "collateral casualties", as opposed to the suicide bombings and rocket attacks that Hezbollah aims at Israeli civilians
Some people take the view that Israel should NEVER be allowed to respond to attacks. They must not attack Hezbollah or Hamas or counter-attack. The Jews should just take it on the chin every time they are attacked.
But here's the thing... if you take the view that Israel cannot attack Hezbollah if collateral damage is possible, then you're really just saying the first thing with different words because all Hezbollah has to do is take a kid with them to "work" every single day.
So ... can Israel attack Hezbollah? Or not?
Sure, no prob, kill'em on the battlefield, training camps, etc. Not supermarkets and bus stops. No one is right here. However, Isreal does not occupy the moral high ground, they're all terrorists.
If this happened in Canada, you might have a different opinion, or not.
A couple of questions.
You think all the Israelis are terrorists?
Hezbollah does not meet Israel in open battle. It embeds itself in the local population. Civilian deaths are therefore unavoidable. They WILL happen.
So are you saying that Israel may not attack Hezbollah or Hamas they’ve embedded themselves in their local population?
Isreal, is not a terrorist state, although terrorism was a tactic used against the British, ya know when someone is living on land you believe to be yours. I simply believe that Isreal ça employ tactics that would never be contemplated by most Western Democracies it seems there is a double standard with regards to Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. What Isreal did amounts to a terrorist act,.
I submit that not only would the west contemplate all of the tactics used by Israel, we HAVE done them in the past when we found it necessary for our own safety.
That we don't do some of them quite as often now is a reflection of the power and security of the west, not that we do things any differently.
*********
I ask you this... what do you suppose would happen to Mexico if the Mexican army joined by eager Mexican citizens had invaded Texas, gone on a rape & murder spree of civilians, filmed their raping and stabbing of American women including sexual torture and when finally driven out had taken hostages back to Mexico. Accounting for population size, the death toll in the USA would be over 38,000 people. And then the Americans watched as the much of the world celebrated this as a wonderful event and "resistance" against American hegemony.
Now imagine that the US isn't quite as powerful as it is now.. still powerful enough to utterly POUND Mexico to dust, but not so strong that they can do it in less than a year.
Do you suppose that the Americans would be having a cease fire and letting the Mexican army re-arm? Or do you suppose something else?
That's been my point from day 1. What happened to Israel is disgusting. Israel's response is disgusting. I have yet to hear from anyone who is upset about it what they think a reasonable response would look like. Some have suggested Israel should have sat down at the table.....until reminded what the US did after 9/11.
My conclusion is that war is disgusting, it's easier to cheer for the underdog, and that the carnage will continue until both sides want to stop the needleless deaths.
Have a great evening
What’s your take on music festivals and soccer fields where children are playing?
Really, pure terrorism
So 2 wrongs make a right, lovely
It won't end until Israel ends it. That's become painfully obvious.
Well on tgat, we can agree.
DD, the terrorists don't appear on the battlefield. The terrorists target supermarkets and bus stops, not the Israelis.
Kindly grow up.
This is guerrilla warfare. The Israeli military usually wears uniforms. Those they are fighting hide among civilians.
lol you are a shill . Ridiculous comment .
If you don’t want collateral damage then don’t start a war.
War is the ultimate low for humanity. Civilians always suffer the most. For it to stop, both sides have to be willing. Neither is.
Tony, that shit ain't on. Don't do that.
This was right up Phil's alley, and only a matter of time before he appeared to help explain it. Good piece, and I'll be very interested when more of the "whodunit" details trickle out in the coming months and years. As a fellow ham, I'm always here for nerd content. De VY2HF / W1PJ / M7JHF
The biggest concern I had when I heard about this attack was the possibility that somebody had figured out how to reliably cause a normal lithium ion battery to explode. That seemed like a very remote possibility, as such batteries are designed, constructed, and tested to prevent that sort of failure via international standards such as IEC62133-2. However, it would be an extremely serious problem affecting billions of devices worldwide.
More probable was a modified battery pack or charger that could create an explosion. Again, didn't seem very likely as the batteries are relatively small and don't contain a lot of energy. Getting them to explode reliably and consistently wouldn't be easy. This is still concerning, though, as it'd be much more difficult to detect those sorts of modifications.
When it was reported that these devices had been planted with explosives, I was much less concerned. That's a new spin on a very old tactic. It also requires a lot of effort to do, and it's something that could be detected and countered. I wouldn't want to be responsible for technology and cybersecurity in Hezbollah right now...
Israel is not to be messed with . Iran needs
To get this through their fanatical skulls and move on
Outstanding article, thank you for making what is going in clear/
No need to explain the comments by Einstein about WW3 vs WW4. We get it.
Hi, bud, you grumpy today ? Don't be so.
Fantastic column. Extremely relevant.
Tactically, this is astounding, as the author notes very well.
What Israel has done with these novel attacks will spawn many books and likely a movie or two.
Hezbollah made the mistake of underestimating their enemy, who were (are) highly motivated.
After this, I hope that Israel does not make the same mistake about Hezbollah and their allies.
They will certainly be motivated after this humiliation.
If you think this act was a triumph for Israel you are living in a bubble. Israel is taking a flamethrower to world opinion. It is an utterly deranged strategy. Combined with near simultaneous footage of Israeli soldiers kicking bound human beings off a rooftop I think there may be no coming back, they have shot past apartheid South Africa in the world revulsion league tables.
Kathleen, when has Israel NOT been the recipient of a "world flamethrower" of stupidity. The one Middle Eastern non-Islamic democracy, formally targeted by its neighbours to be driven into the sea, is the size of New Jersey.
They've never had meaningful world support and they clearly don't give a damn now--after Oct. 7 and even more world condemnation. They've said "Never Again" and mean it.
“Everybody but Israel is stupid and should fuck off” is quite the diplomatic strategy. Might not turn out well but we shall all see, sadly.
You debate with history, Kathleen, and you lose. World support for Israel is best displayed by the UNHRC..."Since the UNHRC's creation in 2006, it has resolved almost as many resolutions condemning Israel alone than on issues for the rest of the world combined."
So, yes, the world is stupid for not fully supporting Israel and, by the way, has already taken the action you suggested.
we will both get to see who loses this one. Unless history ended already and I just haven’t gotten the notice in my inbox?
Yes, I agree. We'll see. Bye for now.
I don't agree that Israel is taking a flamethrower to world opinion. We have watched the woke folk take a flamethrower to Israel ever since the Hamas attach last October. I would argue a very carefully orchestrated flamethrower at that. If you believe Israel is low in world opinion where to you place Hamas?
Hamas is not a nation state. Is Israel putting Hamas as its peer benchmark? It is a strategy but not a wise one if Israel wants a respected seat among nations.
How many times has Israel been condemned or sanctioned by the UN in the last five or ten years? Too many to count us the right answer. In Jen's artfully coined phrase an unrelated Line post, it's "fuckit o'clock" for Israel.
what could go wrong for a little teeny country?
October 7.
You honestly believe what Israel is doing right now is making it *safer*? The absolute systematic destruction of world sympathy from its utterly disproportionate reaction to Oct 7 has been a good and smart policy for a tiny nation to follow? I cannot understand this it seems to me strategically unhinged. “Fuck you, world opinion!” was dumb and has damaged the post 9/11 US. For tiny Israel to do the same thing after Oct 7 and expect better results is crazy.
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. Israel is surrounded by enemies whose unabashed goal is their extinction. I don't know what Israel "winning" this war looks like, I'm pretty sure what losing does.
If wishcasting were infantry divisions no doubt Greater Israel would exist already
I think Israel has moved into the "don't give a fuck" stage. Which is bad, because coming up fast is the "Nuke Iran" stage.
It looks that way to me also.
If we're going to talk about "world opinion", we all need to first recognize and acknowledge that a significant part of that "world opinion" is from Jew hating racists and completely discount their opinion. You and I don't care that the KKK thinks Barrack Obama was a bad President and neither should we care what the Jew-hating racists think of Israel.
Haters gonna hate as they say.
And we DO have a lot of Jew-hating racists in Canada. If you had a neighbour who said he was really against crime... always insisted he was anti-crime and not racist... but then you noticed that 95% of his effort was spent telling you about specific crimes committed by dark skinned immigrants to Canada, you'd know that the man was a racist despite his denials.
It's the same with "anti-Zionists" in Canada.
Look at how often they talk about the lack of human rights, freedom of religion and civil liberties throughout the Muslim world vs. how much time they spend talking about Israel. Look at how often they talk about the need to divest from China and break educational and cultural ties with China vs. how much they talk about the need for the same with Israel.
That tells you when you're dealing with a Jew-hating racist whose view should be rejected outright.
Finally... Canadians who protest against Israel in Jewish neighbourhoods and outside Jewish schools and synagogues? That's racism without question.
***********
Given how widespread anti-Jewish racism is in Canada and the world, how much should I care what the world thinks? How much should Israel care?
Should Jagmeet Singh change his policies because a bunch of Sikh hating racists don't like him?
This would be a more persuasive argument if there were not so many Jewish critics of Israel.
I am sure some people criticise Israel just because they are anti-semitic. But there are really no black members of the KKK outside of Dave Chapelle skits. The case of Israel is not like that: there are a lot of Jewish critics of Israeli policy. So while anti-semitism undoubtedly does motivate some criticism of Israeli policy, criticism of Israeli policy is not at all reducible to anti-semitism.
This would be a more persuasive argument if there were not so many black critics of crime.
Do you see my point? Of COURSE there's nothing wrong with criticizing Israel any more than there's something wrong with criticizing criminals.
BUT we can conclude from their obsessive focus than MANY MANY MANY of the so-called "anti-zionists" in Canada are anti-Jewish racists. How do we know this?
It's exactly like that guy who says he just objects to crime... but spends almost all his time telling you about specific crimes committed by dark skinned immigrants. NOTHING wrong with criticizing criminals ... but that guy is a racist.
If he talked a lot about all crime regardless of the skin colour of the criminal, you could be pretty sure that he wasn't racist.
And similarly if those insisting on sanctions against Israel and academic boycotts of Israel were ALSO demanding sanctions and academic boycotts against China, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, the UAE etc, you could be pretty sure that they weren't racists.
But when you see what we actually see in Canada... academic departments that demand a boycott of Israel, but never talks about an academic boycott of any place else including the places with some of the most illiberal laws you can imagine... you know that whatever else might be going on, those so-called "anti-zionists" are in in fact anti-Jewish racists.
... just like that guy who insists he's also "just anti-crime".
Years ago I had a South African teacher explain to me in great detail just how apartheid controlled nearly all aspects of the lives of the nonwhite population. Israel has nothing near to the regime that the non white population of South Africa had to live and survive under.
I wish all the people calling Israel an apartheid state, would look it up to see just what an apartheid state was actually about.
I think, KL, for you enlightenment and betterment, you should be a Jew for three years. No choice.
I spent many a Friday evening at the home of my childhood best friend sharing shabbat dinner. The memory of her mom lighting the candles and singing the prayers brings tears to my eyes.