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Israel’s pager attacks have changed the world
Our supply chains are vulnerable, which means that we are vulnerable.
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A communication device on the ground as Lebanese army forces prepare to destroy it in a controlled explosion, in southern Lebanon, on Sept 19.
PHOTO: AFP
Bruce Schneier
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Israel’s brazen attacks on Hezbollah last week, in which hundreds of pagers and two-way radios exploded
Though the deadly operations were stunning, none of the elements used to carry them out was particularly new. The tactics employed by Israel – which has neither confirmed nor denied any role – to hijack an international supply chain and embed plastic explosives in Hezbollah devices have been used for years. What’s new is that Israel put them together in such a devastating and extravagantly public fashion, bringing into stark relief what the future of great power competition will look like – in peacetime, wartime and the ever-expanding grey zone in between.
