Glad They're Not on the Other Side

Downtown Beirut was filled with the wailing of ambulance sirens. (WSJ)

Booby-trapped pagers exploded throughout Lebanon yesterday, injuring and killing members of Hezbollah. (Hezbollah had switched to old-fashioned pagers because of worries that Israelis would hack into their smartphones.)

Within minutes, hundreds of pagers issued to Hezbollah officials in Beirut and around the country exploded, killing 12 people and injuring more than 2,800, Lebanese authorities said. Emergency rooms were flooded with blast victims. Hezbollah’s leaders blamed Israel and pledged to retaliate.

Today a second wave occurred:

Then, on Wednesday, it happened again. This time walkie-talkies and other electronics used by the Shiite militant group began blowing up, sending a second wave of casualties into crowded hospitals and further undermining the Shiite militants’ ability to communicate.

By the end of the day, 20 more people were dead and 450 more injured. The attacks also exposed the identities of thousands of Hezbollah operatives, many of whom worked covertly—a coup for Israeli intelligence and a likely surprise for some Hezbollah members’ relatives and neighbors.

Although some innocents died, this was the least-bad military option to identify and cripple a terrorist organization that had embedded itself with civilians. Israel's strategy was brilliant, and it's a sign of the rot within Western intelligence agencies that no one believes that they could have pulled off a similar operation. I'm glad Mossad is not on the other side.