#pager bombs

by Dennis Prager

On Sept. 21, The New York Times provided a perfect example of Israel Derangement Syndrome in a column written by Michael Walzer, a professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, titled "Israel's Pager Bombs Have No Place in a Just War."

As is well known, last week, pagers used by Hezbollah terrorists exploded, killing a handful of them and wounding hundreds more. Amazingly accurate, the exploding pagers killed very few noncombatants. 

Hezbollah is the Shiite and Lebanese equivalent of the Gaza-based Sunni Hamas. Like Hamas, Hezbollah has one purpose: to kill as many Israelis as possible and eradicate the Jewish state. Hezbollah has fired more than 8,000 rockets into Israel in an attempt to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible. Tens of thousands of Israelis have fled their homes in northern Israel and have not returned in nearly a year.

That Israel is being attacked for killing Hezbollah terrorists is proof that, according to the vast array of Israel-haters -- the political, media and academic left, and Muslims in the Western world -- Israel is not allowed to defend itself. It should now be obvious that the current hatred of Israel is not a result of Israel's bombing of Gaza. When Israel targets Hezbollah terrorists -- and only Hezbollah terrorists -- it is equally condemned.

Which brings me to the Times column by Walzer. 

Walzer writes: "The explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday were very likely war crimes -- terrorist attacks by a state that has consistently condemned terrorist attacks on its own citizens.

"Yes, the devices most probably were being used by Hezbollah operatives for military purposes. This might make them a legitimate target in the continuous cross-border battles between Israel and Hezbollah. But the attacks ... came when the operatives were not operating; they had not been mobilized and they were not militarily engaged. ... It is important for friends of Israel to say: This was not right."

According to Professor Walzer, terrorists can only be killed when they are "operating," "mobilized" or "militarily engaged." If they are not doing so, it is a "war crime" to kill them. Furthermore, the mere fact that these members of Hezbollah had those pagers -- devices the professor admits "probably were being used by Hezbollah operatives for military purposes" -- means these terrorists were "operating." That's why they had them: to plan and carry out operations against Israel.

“Sample script to contact companies about your electronic devices:

hilzfuld

A video showing moments of the explosion of some of the paging devices in Lebanon. Surely many more will emerge.

Hezbollah in its first statement on the exploding pagers, says it is investigating the blasts that led to the deaths of two operatives and a young girl, and injured many others.