The ominous implications of the pager attack against Hezbollah

The scene in Lebanon on Tuesday was like something out of a bizarre James Bond movie — with pagers exploding simultaneously in the pockets of hundreds of Hezbollah fighters around the country in what appeared to be an ingenious Israeli operation that combined cyberwar with sabotage.

But Hezbollah gets to write the next chapter in this real-life thriller. And Israeli officials were preparing Tuesday night for retaliatory attacks that, if not contained, could trigger the all-out regional war U.S. officials have been trying to head off for nearly a year.

Israel didn’t take credit for Tuesday’s attack, but it didn’t need to. An attack of this sophistication and daring in Lebanon could not have been staged by any other nation. The video scenes of Hezbollah fighters blown to the floor by their own communications devices sent an unmistakable Israeli message to the Iranian-backed militia: We own you. We can penetrate every space in which you operate.

“When Hezbollah considers how to respond, they should consider that Israel may have more surprises for them. And Israel does,” said one source familiar with Israeli thinking, during an interview on Tuesday.

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