Yesterday at a Cabinet meeting, it was decided to add the return of the people of Northern Israel to their homes as one of the goals of the war. It was also decided that war with Hezbollah was the only way to accomplish this.

Today, at 3:30 in the afternoon, Israel time, electronic beepers of Hezbollah operatives all across Lebanon and Syria began to explode, causing death and injuries to thousands of Hezbollah terrorists. Even the Iranian ambassador to Beirut and his security team had their beepers explode (what were they doing with Hezbollah beepers, huh?) Scenes of hospitals in Lebanon filled to capacity with blood soaked corridors, are flashing across our computer screens. Scenes of ambulances lined up ready to roll. While the numbers of dead and injured keep rising, the current count has exceeded three thousand. All of them Hezbollah terrorists! But the number of dead is reportedly low.

The pager-beepers were apparently a new model, an upgrade. Certainly was, from our point of view!

While Israel has yet to publicly accept responsibility, oh my goodness, we Israelis are proud! Imagine the genius of figuring out how to do this remotely! If there is going to be a war with Hezbollah, what better time to strike then when their operatives are bloody messes and their hospitals are filled? In this, we are following the example set in the Bible. When Shimon and Levi decided to make war on the people of Shechem for kidnapping and raping their sister Dina, they attacked them after they had been incapacitated by circumcision.

The genius of this is that all those killed and injured were all Hezbollah terrorists. In a video, an operative’s beeper explodes when he is on the checkout line at a crowded supermarket. Yet he is the only one hurt. Even the checkout girl, who was nearby, hurries away unharmed. The same is true of videos taken in the open air markets. You see the terrorist go down, but all around him people are looking around, up at the sky, uncertain of what happened, but not harmed at all.

Soon after this story broke, I began to hear non-stop sounds of planes above me. We are on the flight path to Lebanon. About an hour later, IDF planes attacked the village of Majdal Salem in Southern Lebanon. In Damascus four were seriously injured in a car near Kfar Sousa as a result of exploding beepers.

The internet users in Israel are having great fun with this as we all rejoice at this blow against our enemies which has been given the name: “Below the Belt.” Depending on where the beeper was when it exploded, different parts of the terrorist’s body was subject to injury. Great fun is being made of those that kept it in their pockets. As one suggested: They attacked our chickens (referring to the Hezbollah rocket attack which succeeded in harming chicken coops in the Galilee ) but we got their Batzim (eggs in Hebrew, but a euphemism for their private parts.) Another meme shows Nasrallah with a soot-covered face, raising his hands saying: “There is no room for panic.”

In an official announcement, Hezbollah said: “We call for caution against rumor that serves the enemy’s psychological warfare. The resistance in Lebanon is on the highest alert.” A short time later, certainly not enough time for even a cursory investigation, Hezbollah announced: “After a review we conducted, we place the responsibility for what happened on the Israeli enemy. The criminal enemy will pay an adequate recompense for this aggression.”

To which Abu Ali, with his inimitable sense of humor, replied: “Special preparations in the chicken coops in the North of Israel.” Another meme says: “For the continuation of the fighting, Hezbollah is considering switching to other means of communication.” The picture shows two cups attached by a string, an old rotary phone, a carrier pigeon….

The Iranian Ministry of Health has offered to fly the injured to Iran for treatment. They might want to reconsider, because when Israel takes over Lebanon, they won’t be allowed back…

How do we feel? Happy and proud, but unsettled. We don’t know what is going to happen next. But we are grateful to have such brilliant people, our fellow Israelis, our inventive and moral soldiers, on our side. I thank the IDF and everyone involved for finding a way of hurting our enemies and minimizing collateral damage, something that Hezbollah never does, aiming always at residential buildings, children’s soccer fields, hospitals… Whatever may happen, the IDF has my love and my trust and my thanks.

May God watch over them, and us.

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