Who’s the terrorist now?
Now?
Good point
Hezbollah
You’re saying it was not targeted at combatants, or that there was a lot of collateral damage?
Two health workers and two children were killed, many from the civilian branch of the governent were injured (which were blatantly categorized as Hizbullah fighters). Even if not a single civilian were killed or hurt, some of these pagers exploded in grocery stores and other public spaces effectively terrorizing and traumatizing the local population.
So yes, it was a terrorist attack. Recently, Israeli occupation in Gaza was added to the list of genocides in wikipedia, this should be added as a list of terrorist attacks in the middle east.
More to the point, it was literally intended to terrorize.
Are those the only requirements you think make something an act of terror?
Which requirements are they missing, that are applicable to the pager attack?
Well let’s see, the FBI calls international terrorism “Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups who are inspired by, or associated with, designated foreign terrorist organizations or nations (state-sponsored).” And I’d argue the pagers were state-sponsored, violent, and to my knowledge criminal since killing civilians is typically viewed as criminal.
But I really like how Wikipedia words it:
the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war against non-combatants (mostly civilians and neutral military personnel). There are various different definitions of terrorism, with no universal agreement about it. Different definitions of terrorism emphasize its randomness, its aim to instill fear, and its broader impact beyond its immediate victims.
Do I really need to spell out for you how using an IED to kill whoever happens to be near it when the detonator is pressed fits this definition? If so I’d like to see why you think Oct 7th was a terrorist attack.
Because bystanders were not deliberately targeted by the pager attack. They were collateral. If I launch 20 rockets at a military base and a couple of them go astray and several civilians are killed, that is not a terrorist attack, even if I was aware of the possibility of that happening. Should I have been more careful? Maybe, but that is a different discussion. If I launch those rockets at a marketplace with the intention of killing/terrorizing civilians, that would be a terrorist attack. And that is the difference between the pager attack and Oct 7: intent.
I launch 20 rockets at a military base
Which military base did the pagers go off in? This is more like dropping bombs on a school or hospital because you think there are some military personnel inside. Oh wait, they do that too. I can’t believe Israel managed to get a bunch of idiots to defend IED’s.
One key note is that Israel is worse at protecting civilians than Hamas is. By their own numbers, the IDF kills more civilians for every enemy soldier they kill than Hamas does. Hamas is actually a far more ethical army, in terms of civilian casualty ratios, than the IDF is.
The harsh truth is that the only reason we call Hamas a “terrorist group” and the IDF “an army” is classism. The IDF kills 10 civilians to destroy one Hamas fighter with a laser-guided bomb? That’s just collateral damage. Hamas kills 10 civilians to kill one IDF soldier with a truck bomb? That’s terrorism.
The definition of terrorism should be amended:
terrorism (n): violence committed by a group representing one demographic group against a wealthier demographic group.
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Congratulations on being able to put on two matching socks today. I know it must have been challenging for you, but you persevered!
Interesting he feels clear to admit this after Trump is elected.
I mean no shock that he would carry out a plan to kill people indiscriminately. What I wonder is if he could get the devices into their hands to carry out this attack, what else have they sold to Hezbollah?
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How can Israel be so precise and effective when they attack Lebanon, but in Gaza they have to kill mostly civilians to get to Hamas
The pagers weren’t precise at all.
Do you have any info on this? I couldn’t find any info on the target Vs civilian rate of the attqck. Not even how many were targeted. Only some media coverage of single civilian stories and innocent children getting hit. I assume this is inevitable in a large scale operation like this. But, from the videos available, it seemed like the explosives had very limited radius, where even people standing next to the targets were not hit or even knocked over!
Compare that to flattening entire cities, to get to the targets, i’d call it pretty precise!
It was more precise in the way that the explosions were smaller. The targets were not precise.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Lebanon_electronic_device_attacks#International_law
Ends don’t justify means, indiscriminate attacks risking civilian lives is a war crime by international law. Simultaneously exploding thousands of pagers where you have no way of assuring who possesses the pagers and where it explodes is indiscriminate as explained by many experts on the topic. Wishful thinking does not change anything.
