Opinion | The terrifying institution of Mossad, and Israel's pursuit of escalation
By Tom Fowdy
On Tuesday, thousands of pager communication devices simultaneously exploded across Lebanon. The blast killed an estimated nine people, and injured thousands more. Designed to target Hezbollah members, this was a carefully orchestrated and planned move by Israel's "Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations" or better known, as the Mossad. As much as I loathe to say it, this kind of operation was so sophisticated that it was level you would see in an action movie of sorts, the type of mission that seems only plausible to fictional characters played by Tom Cruise. Yet, it was all very much real, and is a reminder of the horrifying capabilities wielded by the Mossad.
While the CIA is a sometimes bureaucratic and cumbersome organisation that is known to make mistakes and fail in some of its objectives, the Mossad is perhaps the single most competent and lethal intelligence agency in the world. If Israel wants you dead, you're dead, and recent history is lined with these operations of such an impressive magnitude that one wonders how they are pulled off. The Mossad infiltrates everything and everywhere it wants, even once having got inside North Korea of all countries in 2004 to blow up a Syrian delegation soliciting nuclear technology.
Mossad gets inside Iran, killing its scientists and destroying its facilities with tremendous sophistication, even killing the political chief of Hamas, and any western scientists who think about supporting Israel's adversaries? They usually end up dead too, and so do most of the leaders of any militant organisation that opposes Tel Aviv. Finally, Mossad seems to have a level of communications interception that can get into even the most encrypted applications, such as the notorious Pegasus program. No country in history has ever come close to this level of indirect warfare and almost omniscient espionage, hence a shipment of thousands of pagers was somehow especially rigged with explosives to try and wipe out Hezbollah's command.
The geopolitical implications of this of course, are enormous. Will there be a larger, outright war in the Middle East? The US certainly doesn't want one, and is doing its best to use the unwilling leverage it has to try and reign Benjamin Netanyahu in, but this Zionist extremist has no interest in compromise and is using the escalation of conflict in order to forcibly change the political paradigm, knowing he can get away with it. Israel continually pulls punches at its enemies knowing that its capabilities are unmatched, seeking to provoke a response, and in getting such dramatically escalate the state of play. The west are happy to back his every move, even if they don't want a war, refusing to seriously challenge the Zionist state head on, while nations like Iran seemingly recognise the implications are all by all measures, choosing to show comparative restraint.
But how long can this bubbling pot be contained for? How long can tensions be managed amidst something like this? It would be foolish in order to predict a war between Hezbollah and Israel after this given there have been many such calls proven wrong, yet some people may fear otherwise because when is enough, enough? At what point do you realise your enemy is determined to destroy you, so you can only fight back? Israel seems to have the upper hand against Hezbollah, not just in capabilities but also in terms of intelligence, hence it can just launch massive pre-emptive bombardments as it did a few weeks ago, should it detect something is coming. The costs of taking on Israel are huge.
Yet this attack is something else, it is an entire infiltration and attack across a whole country which crossed military boundaries, killing, injuring, and impacting innocent people (despite the narrative of it only targeting "Hezbollah Terrorists"), it is an act of outright war on a civilian population which to ignore or brush off, would seem weak, legitimating, and inviting for more. Can you imagine how this would be viewed if it happened in the west? We don't need to ask ourselves that, yet what we can recognise is that Benjamin Netanyahu represents the single largest threat to peace and stability in the Middle East and he seems determined to provoke a war for his own interests. Will Iran and its allies take the bait? Will they finally determine all lines have been crossed? Only time will tell.
The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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