Let’s make this clear from the get-go. The Israelis were entirely justified in getting boobytrapped pagers and walkie-talkies into the hands of Hezb’allah terrorists and blowing them up. Let’s add that the Israelis were damned clever. Hezb’allah ditched handhelds because of geo-tracking dangers. More rudimentary technology was deemed safer.

Reports the Times of Israel, September 21:

Interviewed in the [television] report, Ronen Bergman, an investigative reporter for The New York Times and Yedioth Ahronoth, says the whole scheme was dreamed up by a brilliant female intelligence operative, aged less than 30, somewhere in the Middle East.

If you’re dating or married to the young lady who originated this mission, best not get on her wrong side. Some may think it’s morbid to marvel, but it was an amazing operation. It took ingenuity, sophistication, means, and oodles of patience to accomplish it. Reports are inexact, but hundreds of Hezb’allah’s finest were killed. Scores were blinded or had their cojones dispatched to Allah. That means fewer terrorist babies.

A couple of CodePink droolers harassed U.S. rep. Harriet Hageman for backing the Israelis. Hageman is a tough lady and cool customer. All she said to the droolers was “Do you have your pagers on you?” Of course, she was messing with their delicate little psyches. No sensible person owes fools an explanation.

Were innocents injured or killed in the attacks (“collateral damage” in war’s vernacular)? Likely is the best answer, but the Israelis went to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties.

Back to the Times of Israel’s report:

Each of the pagers that exploded on their Hezbollah owners across Lebanon on Tuesday, injuring thousands of the terror group’s operatives, was individually detonated, with the attackers knowing who was being targeted, where he was, and whether others were in close proximity, Channel 12 claims.

While any innocent injured or killed in war is truly unfortunate, wars are brutal affairs. The best war is the one that doesn’t happen. But when it does happen, it’s unavoidably about breaking things and killing. People who think they can cuddle polar bears or pet bison may shrink, but, hey, reality bites harder than bears. Every war that we Americans have fought -- from the Revolution onward -- has had collateral damage. The advent of modern total war with Sherman’s March to the Sea accounted for civilian casualties. Germany and Japan were area bombed in World War II. That the Israelis built into the mission technology to target Hezb’allah irregulars while seeking to prevent civilian casualties speaks to the Israelis’ humanity. It was Hamas – Hezb’allah’s cousin -- that exhibited its inhumanity by perpetrating the gruesome October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians. Hezb’allah is firing rockets indiscriminately into northern Israel now.

The Israeli operation was a smashing success, so you can bet your handheld that governments and militaries -- let’s throw in paramilitary outfits and terrorist groups -- are now on high alert. They’re scrambling to implement stringent protocols pertaining to procurements for electronic devices. Authenticating source-origin for electronics and rigorous screenings of devices before distribution to military and government personnel is necessary. Hezb’allah, undoubtedly, once blown up is now twice shy.

The Israeli operation was precedent in terms of operational scale and sophistication. It has definitely set off alarms. Ordinary consumer technology can be weaponized. The extent and level of sophistication may vary. The purposes for doing so may differ. But the fact is that if the Israelis can build electronic devices to maim and kill Hezb’allah terrorists, terrorists and enemy nations will find ways of exploiting the same means. Getting there is easier said than done, however.

Israel surely isn’t alone in eyeing weaponizing electronics. State players like of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and -- yes, indeed -- the U.S. must have or are developing their own mission capabilities. Asymmetry is intrinsic to modern warfare.

Joshua Phillip on his “Crossroads” program at the Epoch Times (September 24) discusses the possibility that the PRC might weaponize consumer electronics. They’d do so as a means of spreading terror.

Wrote Phillip:

There are growing concerns over Chinese technology, and whether it could be weaponized. [snip] And now, the United States is proposing a ban on Chinese hardware and software in vehicles, amid concerns over national security.

Phillip cited a September 19 article from the Washington Examiner:

Take the ubiquitous iPhone. Despite Apple being an American company, key components of almost every iPhone, including the battery, processor, and camera, are made in China.

It isn’t that Xi Jinping is looking to boobytrap electronics exported to the U.S. now. China maiming or killing its customers’ customers isn’t good business. Trading Economics reports that in 2023, Chinese exports to the U.S. topped $500 billion. Electrical and electronic equipment alone accounted for a quarter of total exports ($124.5 billion). That doesn’t account for products like “optical, photo, technical, and medical apparatus” or bigger industrial items: “machinery, nuclear reactors, and boilers.” Much of what the PRC ships to the U.S. relies on some sort of electronics.

If a Sino-American war appeared imminent, the PRC could find ways outside of conventional distribution chains to get rigged electronics into consumers’ hands. Mexican cartels use black markets to get illicit drugs to U.S. consumers now. Per Brookings (March 21), the Chinese are implicated in providing precursor chemicals for fentanyl. The PRC is suspected of prepositioning sleeper cells (saboteurs) here in the event of conflict, so Chinese subterfuge isn’t unheard of.

Ongoing, rising tensions over Taiwan and disputes over the South China Sea (international waters claimed by the PRC) are obvious flashpoints for war. Whether or not China would embed explosives and other necessary technology to detonate consumer devices -- doing so en masse -- is speculative. But that tactic, whether undertaken by the Chinese or other possible belligerents, will now register as a national security concern.

Since most Americans no longer carry pagers or have much use for walkie-talkies, rigging handhelds to explode are obvious targets. There are reasons why that’s a taller order than engineering simpler electronic devices to blow up.

As Wired reported, September 19, there are plenty of challenges getting explosive-rigged handhelds into consumers’ hands. A noteworthy consideration:

There are other more practical reasons, too, that the attacks in Lebanon are unlikely to portend a global wave of exploding consumer electronics anytime soon. Unlike portable devices that were originally designed in the 20th century, the current generation of laptops and particularly smartphones are densely packed with hardware components to offer the most features and the longest battery life in the most efficient package possible. [Italics added.]

The report quotes Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at the University of Surrey:  

“When you open up a smartphone, I think the only way to get any sort of meaningful amount of high explosive in there would be to do something like replace one of the components,” he says, such as modifying a battery to be half battery, half explosives. But “replacing a component in a smartphone would compromise its functionality,” he says, which could lead a user to investigate the malfunction.

So, there are practical obstacles to weaponizing handhelds. But there’s a slew of other electronics to consider. And, remember, that obstacles are challenges for bright, ingenious people. There’s a young, female Israeli intelligence operative who can attest to that fact.

J. Robert Smith can be found at X. His handle is @JRobertSmith1. At Gab, @JRobertSmith. He blogs occasionally at Flyover.

Image: AT via Magic Studio

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