"Totally unlikely" that Israel was not behind the seeker attack
Karin Thurfjell
Updated 19.01 | Published 18.18
According to Sky News, Israel's president denies that the country is behind the exploding pagers.
But according to Middle East expert Anders Persson, that is not at all what Isaac Herzog says.
- In my world, the list of suspects begins and ends with Israel.
In an interview with British Sky News, Israeli President Isaac Herzog is asked about the attack in which pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to members of Hezbollah exploded. According to the TV channel, Herzog then denied that Israel was behind it.
In
the interview, Herzog responds this way to a question about whether he
thinks blowing up pagers, when children and other innocents may be
nearby, is a legitimate way of waging war:
- Firstly, I flatly reject all connections to this or that type of operation.
Then Herzog goes on to talk about the attack in which a missile from terrorist-classified Hezbollah killed twelve children in the Druze village
of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights in July. Herzog also talks about
how peaceful residents of various religions in northern Israel have been
forced to flee because of Hezbollah attacks.
- They continue to fight and we must take measures to defend our people.
Herzog: We are there to defend ourselves
The
journalist then asks if Herzog denies that Israel has any
responsibility for the explosions. He also asks if Herzog thinks someone
else is responsible, such as the Druze.
- I have not referred to anything except to say that Hezbollah has many enemies out there, Herzog replies.
He also talks about how Hezbollah has "strangled", "destroyed" and "created havoc" in Lebanon over and over again.
-
We are simply there to defend ourselves. That's all we do. And we are
clear that we must take action, as any normal nation would, as the UK
would do, as any sovereign state would, to defend its people.
Anders Persson
Middle East expert
"Unintelligible wording"
Middle
East expert Anders Persson does not interpret Isaac Herzog's answers as
denying that Israel was involved in the attack. Nor does the president
say that Israel is involved.
- I cannot see that it is a clear position. He answers neither yes nor no.
Anders
Persson gets the impression that Herzog is trying to talk around the
questions about who is behind the search engine explosions.
- Some of the wording is quite incomprehensible if you go through it word by word.
The president in Israel has a ceremonial role. The office has no major formal power.
-
In this way, he has a limited space to say something else. He must have
received orders from the government to neither confirm nor deny this,
but to talk his way out of it as best he can.
May have had help from others
Anders
Persson says that Israel has been "cryptically silent" since the pagers
exploded. Herzog's response is in line with that silence. Anders
Persson believes that if Israel really wasn't involved, the country
would have clearly denied involvement.
Anders Persson also does
not see any other actor who would have had the opportunity to carry out
the attack. He says it is 99.9 percent certain that Israel is behind it.
-
In my world, the list of suspects begins and ends with Israel. Then
Israel may have taken help from other actors and hired either one or the
other. But I find it totally unlikely that Israel would have anything
to do with this.
FACTS
Thousands were injured
On
the afternoon of September 9, thousands of pagers allegedly belonging
to members of the extremist Islamist Hezbollah movement in Lebanon
exploded.
The next day there were further explosions in Lebanon.
According to local authorities, the explosions are linked to
walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah.
The explosions took place simultaneously in several places. Most in Lebanon but also in Syria.
In
many places, the explosions took place in public places when many
people were buying groceries, sitting in cafes or in rush hour traffic.
At
least 2,750 people were injured, according to Lebanese health
officials. At least nine people have been killed, including a
nine-year-old girl.
Hezbollah singles out Israel as responsible, which is supported by sources in the international media.
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