I didn’t read all 300 replies to this thread, so I’m guessing this has already been answered but here is my understanding.
Israel manufactured the pagers, or intercepted them and put 10-20 grams of highly potent military explosives in them. The explosives were connected to the battery.
When Israel sent out a mass page, it overheated the battery which acted as a trigger and caused the pagers to blow up.
No.
They had an explosive, detonator and trigger.
Causing the battery to overheat wouldn’t work, and would be much too slow to even if it could.
Thats interesting. I appreciate the updated info.
That would be a jerk move.
“Those guys over there are worse” is not a valid excuse for committing atrocities.
Here’s an example of something that looks, to outsiders, completely inexcusable, preventable in spite of war conditions, and does Israel no favors whatsoever:
When the IDF took over the Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital they forced out the people who had been working there and left a half dozen babies to die. Just left them, in their beds, with no one to care for them. Please explain to me how freakin’ INFANTS could be anyone’s enemies, or Hamas agents, or whatever. Please explain what could possibly justify leaving babies to die. Explain why, given the IDF had complete control over the hospital grounds and the personnel there (arresting all of them and marching them off) the IDF couldn’t have evacuated those babies, too. Leaving babies to die make the IDF look like monsters.
So, it’s “little” things like that which is steadily turning opinion against Israel. And blowing back on Jews world wide whether or not they have any direct connection to Israel, whether or not they support the meat grinder in Gaza.
So by all means trot out the excuse of “everybody is doing it” or “these other people are worse”. Nobody in the West likes or respects or thinks those other people are good guys. You want to have the West on your side? You’ll have to behave better than the terrorists.
And if there’s something more to the story, something omitted that could possibly excuse such a travesty, then that means you’re losing the propaganda war as well.
Maybe Israel doesn’t care what other people think. Maybe the IDF and Mossad will do what they feel they need to do and ignore what other nations think. Well, fine, but don’t be surprised if others decide to withdraw support. Don’t take the support of allies for granted. Allies are only going to stomach so many dead babies and gouged out eyeballs.
Was Oct 7 a horrific atrocity? Yep, it sure was. And what’s been happening in Gaza just as bad. Maybe worse, because a hell of a lot of people that the IDF admits are “collateral damage” have died for every Hamas fighter or leader killed. Latest count is 40,000 dead in Gaza vs the 1139 dead on Oct 7. That’s 35 Gazans for every dead Israeli. When are the scales going to be balanced? Is a Gazan life worth only 1/35 of an Israeli life? Aren’t the lives on both sides equally human? When is enough enough? When there are 50 dead Gazans for every dead Israeli? Or 100 dead Gazans? Or 1000?
Is it a matter of killing off everyone in Hamas (and damn the consequences and collateral damage)? Then why isn’t Israel going after the Hamas leaders living in luxury in Doha, Qatar? A country that can booby-trap 5,000 pagers surely can handle a couple of old guys camped out in a hotel, right? So what if it causes an international incident or upsets another government, it’s all about getting the job done, right?
Are you going to answer that Israel doesn’t have a choice because their neighbors keep wanting to kill them? Yeah, we’ve noticed. Also seems Israel keeps killing its neighbors, too. Until Israel comes to terms with how its government and military are contributing to this merry-go-round of violence and death it’s never going to end.
A good start would be ending the tolerance for “settlers” illegally camped out on lands that are supposed to be Palestinian. Why the hell has that been allowed - other than racism? Actually prosecute and punish in a meaningful way the Israelis who are beating and killing Palestinians as vigilantes. Demonstrate that Palestinian lives are worth as much as Israeli lives. Demonstrate that the law applies equally to all. Of course, none of that is going to happen with the likes of ben Gvir and Smotrich in power. They are very much part of the on-going problems in that part of the world.
No doubt my words will make you angry. They’re the truth as I see it. I’m tired of the assumption that because I’m Jewish I have to either back Israel entirely or I’m a bad Jew or an undeserving Jew or a mistaken Jew. I am tired of being scolded or lectured when I criticize how this war is being conducted, as if I’m not allowed to think independently. The people currently running Israel are bad people and they are engaging in bad actions that will have bad consequences for everyone. I can’t condone war crimes, atrocities, and genocide from either side. They’re wrong. The fact the people they are fighting are also wrong doesn’t change that. Funny how those two statement apply equally well to either side in this conflict.
Everyone involved has dirty hands. Everybody is pointing bloody finger at the other side. It’s an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and it shows no signs of stopping until everyone is blind and toothless.
Question was answered quite a lot of posts ago and the last bunch of posts have really left the pager stuff behind.
This will stay closed.