Beep, Beep, Boom!

November 7, 2024

by: Nathan Williams, Director of Marketing and Communications

 

Since the reestablishment of the Jewish state in 1948, Israel has faced existential threats from hostile neighbors, terrorist militias and non-state actors. Central to the preservation and security of the state has been Israel’s excellence in military innovation, mastery of intelligence gathering and covert spy missions—with plots only Hollywood could imagine. To the host of antisemites in the world, the undercover workings of a Jewish spy agency reinforce antisemitic stereotypes. Yet the reality is that Israel works in the shadows to thwart potential disasters, prevent full-scale conflicts and preserve lives.

Comfortable in the Gray

Israel excels in military intelligence—an arena where secrecy and precision are paramount—allowing the nation to outmaneuver adversaries. An iconic figure in Israeli espionage is Eli Cohen, whose infiltration of the highest ranks of the Syrian government in the 1960s remains legendary. Disguised as a Syrian businessman, Cohen gained access to high-ranking Syrian officials, even touring the Golan Heights. His deep undercover work allowed Israel to gain critical intelligence about Syria’s military capabilities and defenses, information that would prove vital during the 1967 Six Day War. His famous suggestion to plant trees around Syrian bunkers to provide shade for the Syrian soldiers on duty allowed the Israeli Air Force to easily identify and target key military positions during the fighting. This helped neutralize Syrian defenses, greatly contributing to Israel’s swift victory, while minimizing Israeli casualties.

Another prime example is the 1976 Operation Entebbe, where Israeli commandos defied the odds to rescue hijacked hostages from Uganda, minimizing casualties and preventing a diplomatic crisis.

Similarly successful was Operation Moses, also known as the Red Sea Diving Resort operation. In the early 1980s, the Mossad, Israel famous intelligence agency, established a fake resort on the Sudanese coast, which served as a front to smuggle Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Over four years, Mossad agents secretly rescued thousands of people from persecution and imminent danger, saving countless lives. The operation’s success was not revealed until years later, demonstrating Israel’s remarkable ability to combine creativity, meticulous planning and secrecy in covert missions.

In more recent times, Israel’s intelligence gathering and targeted assassinations of prominent terrorist figureheads—though controversial—are not aimed at death and destruction, but merely seek to disrupt terror plots and save Israeli lives. These operations underscore Israel’s strategic use of covert actions to neutralize threats without escalating to widespread violence.

Paging Destruction

Hezbollah remains one of Israel’s most dangerous enemies, with its vast arsenal of rockets and a sophisticated network of operatives. Israel’s defensive measures against Hezbollah have evolved over time, blending advanced missile defense systems with intelligence operations aimed at preempting attacks. But in the world of espionage, few operations have matched the daring and ingenuity of Israel’s recent Mossad attack on Hezbollah. While Israel hasn’t taken responsibility, experts agree that only Israeli daring and ingenuity could have pulled off an operation of this caliber.

To avoid detection, Hezbollah had long abandoned the use of mobile phones, which can easily be traced. In their place, the group turned to pagers—wireless devices that receive and display text messages without making phone calls—hoping this would keep their communications secure from Israeli intelligence. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah ordered 5,000 pagers made by Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, which reportedly arrived in Lebanon earlier this year. In an alleged sophisticated Mossad operation, Israel booby-trapped these 5,000 pagers, which Hezbollah believed were secure devices. According to the source, “The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It’s very hard to detect it through any means. Even with any device or scanner.”

On September 17, 2024, Mossad remotely detonated these pagers, killing or maiming as many as 4,000 Hezbollah operatives, primarily in Lebanon and Syria. The explosion was triggered when users followed a two-step decryption process, ensuring maximum damage. The operation, kept secret for years, devastated Hezbollah’s ranks, especially after Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in subsequent strikes.

By turning ordinary pagers into deadly bombs, Israeli intelligence executed one of its most innovative and devastating blows against terrorism, saving countless lives in the process. This covert operation not only stunned the Iranian terror proxy, but also exemplified Israel’s commitment to preempting threats and protecting its people in the ever-evolving battlefield of the Middle East. According to the Washington Post, the success of this operation was a crucial blow to Hezbollah’s operations and added pressure on the group’s leadership, further demonstrating Israel’s unmatched intelligence capabilities in the region.

Those Pesky Jews?

The stunning success of the covert operation in Lebanon has, however, also once again inflamed antisemitic attitudes toward the Jewish people. The existence of a Jewish spy agency like the Mossad often fuels age-old antisemitic stereotypes, painting Israel and the Jewish people as secretive, manipulative or wielding disproportionate influence behind the scenes. These stereotypes stem from centuries-old conspiracies, such as the shadowy Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which falsely accused the Jewish people of plotting world domination through covert means. The Mossad’s high-profile and sometimes controversial operations, such as targeted assassinations or daring intelligence missions, provide fodder for these baseless claims. Rather than recognizing these actions as standard national security measures, critics with antisemitic leanings exploit them to perpetuate harmful myths about Jewish power, control and global manipulation. This narrative is dangerous, as it incites hatred, fuels global antisemitism and distorts public perception of Israel’s legitimate defense efforts.

These tropes—like the idea of an “all-powerful” Jewish cabal controlling world events—are not just false, but also dehumanize Jewish people and paint them as perpetual outsiders with malevolent intent. This is particularly dangerous in an already charged geopolitical environment, where misinformation spreads quickly. The existence of the Mossad, a national intelligence agency tasked with protecting Israel, is often twisted to fit these harmful narratives. However, like any sovereign nation, Israel has the right and responsibility to protect its citizens and national interests. In that capacity, the Mossad functions no differently from agencies like the CIA or MI6, yet is uniquely targeted due to persistent antisemitic biases.

The world struggles to accept the “strong Jew”—Jews who stands up for themselves, who defends their nation and people. It seems the world would prefer if the Jews suffered in silence as in days past. Yet despite the hatred they receive, the Jewish state and its spy agency will operate in whatever manner necessary to save Jewish lives and the State of Israel. And whether the rest of the world recognizes it or not, they do so in a way that will even minimize loss of life in the camp of their enemies.

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