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on September 17th after Israel and the
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terrorist organization Hezbollah had
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been in an escalating War for nearly a
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year the Israeli spy agency mad launched
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one of the most daring and sophisticated
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deceptions in the history of
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counterintelligence the pager plot a
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modern take on the Trojan Horse mad
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created a bomb in a pocket and tricked
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Hezbollah Fighters into unwittingly
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wearing these devices on their bodies
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the repercussions of the plot have been
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dramatic including aiding in the fall of
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the Assad regime in Syria the weakening
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of Iran and the decimating of the target
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of the plot
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Hezbollah we spoke with two recently
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retired senior mad agents with leading
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roles in the operation to hide their
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identities we agreed they could wear a
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mask ask and have their voices
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altered we started with Michael not his
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real
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name the story will continue in a
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moment you were something called a case
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officer what exactly is a case officer a
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case officer spearheads the operation
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he's the commander of the operation the
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operation started 10 years ago not with
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pagers but with weaponizing walkie Takis
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a walki talki was a weapon just like a
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bullet or a missile or a mortar so a
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walki talkie bomb a Walkin talking BN
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inside the battery there is an explosive
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device and that was the invention to put
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an explosive device that couldn't be
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detected into the battery correct made
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in Israel at mad yes as I understand it
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these
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walkie-talkies went into a tactical vest
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that a soldier would put on and then
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this would go in the pocket correct near
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the heart yes so Israel sold this device
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to Hezbollah Hezbollah paid for this
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this weapon that was to be used against
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them than G price a good price that
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couldn't be too low or they'd be
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suspicious in the end Hezbollah bought
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over 16,000 of these exploding
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walkie-talkies that Israel then didn't
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activate for 10 years until 3 months ago
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how did you convince Hezbollah to buy
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this well obviously they didn't know
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that they were buying it from Israel who
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did they buy it from or think they were
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buying it from we have an incredible
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array of possibilities of creating
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foreign companies that have no way been
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traced back to Israel shell companies
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over shell companies who affect the
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supply chain to our favor we create a
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pretend world we are a Global Production
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Company we write the screenplay we're
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the directors with the producers were
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the main actors and the world is our
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state this is mossad's old office its
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motto from Proverbs 246 says in so many
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words wage war through deception and
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trickery kind of like the CIA smoke and
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mirrors which is what this operation was
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all about starting with those
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walkie-talkies but walkie-talkies are
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only worn in battle so mosad began
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developing a new device that Hezbollah
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Fighters would have in their pockets all
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the time a pager a pager is almost
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absolete around the world but hisbah
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still using it this is Gabriel not his
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real name or
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voice in 2022 he and his team started
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developing the second phase of the
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operation the booby trapped pagers he
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found out that Hezbollah was buying
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pagers from this company in Taiwan
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called gold Apollo this is the pager
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that uh Hezbollah was using so it's very
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Sleek it's very shiny and it certainly
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can fit in a pocket so what did you do
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to change this to make it into a bomb so
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to make it into a bomb we have to
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enlarge it a little bit in order to put
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explosives inside but not too much using
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dummies mosad conducted tests with the
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pager in a padded glove to calibrate the
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grams of explosive needed to be just
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enough to hurt the fighter but not the
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person next to him if you push the
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button the only one that will get
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injured is the terrorist himself even if
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his wife or his daughter will be just
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next to him he's the only one that's
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going to be harmed did you test for that
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yes we test everything triple double
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multiple times in order to make sure
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there's minimum damage could you use it
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as a tracking device did it have
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intelligence capability oh no this is a
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very stupid device by Nature this is the
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reason they using it there's almost no
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way how to tap it it's only receiving
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messages and uh several grams of
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explosive mosad also tested these ring
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tones to find a sound urgent enough to
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compel someone to take it out of their
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pocket and they tested how long it takes
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a person to answer a pager on average 7
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seconds but how to convince Hezbollah to
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switch to this bulkier pager I remember
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the day that I came to our director put
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it on the table and he was Furious he
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was telling us there is no chance that
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anyone will buy such a big device it's
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not comfortable in their pockets is
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heavy very heavy very heavy it's no good
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yeah go back and bring me something else
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it took me two weeks to convince him
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that although it's ugly it has
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character character meaning added
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features which they touted in fake ads
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on YouTube robust dustproof waterproof
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long battery life we make advertising
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movies and brochures and we put it on
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internet and it become the best product
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in the Beeper area in the world did
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people other than Hezbollah want to buy
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this based on what was being said about
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it online yes we received several
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requests from regular potential customer
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obviously we didn't send to anyone we
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just quot them with expensive price
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mosad wanted to use the name gold Apollo
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on its pager so it set up shell
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companies including one in this building
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in Hungary to dup the Taiwanese into
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partnering with them so the company in
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Taiwan one gold Apollo did they know
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that they were working with people from
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Assad gold Apollo had zero clue that
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they are working with the mad and
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neither did Hezbollah when they are
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buying from us they have zero clue that
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they are buying from the mad we make
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like Truman Show everything is
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controlled by us behind the scene in
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their experience everything is normal
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everything was 100% culture including
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businessmen marketing Engineers showroom
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everything to further the plot mosad
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hired the gold Apollo saleswoman
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Hezbollah was used to working with
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before she offered them the first batch
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of pagers as an upgrade free of charge
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by September
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2024 Hezbollah had 5,000 pages in their
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pockets the question for Israel when to
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activate the sleeping bombs there were
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hints Hezbollah might be getting
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suspicious of the devices so most OD
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head Dy Bara gave the goahead triggering
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the attack and shocking people around
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the world as it seemed more like a spy
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movie than reality on September 17th at
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3:30 p.m. pagers started beeping all
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over Lebanon as I understand it people
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with this pager got a message that said
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you have an encrypted message in order
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to access it you have to push the two
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buttons meaning that it would explode in
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their hands that was the whole point so
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if someone did not push the two buttons
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what happened it's the same effect it's
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going to explode anyway the explosive
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was triggered in Israel
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yes what ensued was
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Mayhem people with pagers blowing up on
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the street on motorcycles hospitals
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filling up with the wounded limbs
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fingers torn off bloodied blinded holes
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in stomachs for the most part the
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explosions worked as planned they say
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watch the man on the
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[Music]
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left those right next to him were
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unscathed the very next day mad finally
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activated the walkie-talkies that had
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been dormant for 10 years
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some going off at the funerals of those
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killed by the
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pagers All In All About 30 people died
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including two children around 3,000 were
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injured the aim it wasn't killing
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hasbalah terrorist if he just dead so
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he's dead but if he wounded you have to
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take him to the hospital take care of
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him you need to invest money in efforts
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and those people without hands and eyes
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are living proof walking in Lebanon
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of Don't Mess with us they are walking
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proof of our superiority all around the
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Middle East two days after the pager
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attack Hezbollah leader Hassan nasala
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known for his fiery oratory gave a
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subdued speech if you look at his eyes
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he was defeated he already lose the war
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and Soldier look at him during that
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speech and they saw a broken leader and
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this was the Tipping Point of the war I
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don't know if you know that nasrala when
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we operate the beer operation just next
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to him in the bunker several people at
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the Beeper receiving the message and in
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his own eyes he saw them collapsing how
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do you know that it's a strong
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rumor in the ensuing days the Israeli
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Air Force hit targets all across Lebanon
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killing over a thousand many of them
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civilians on September 27th it dropped
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massive bombs on noala bunker
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assassinating
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him 2 months later after more Israeli
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strikes over leanon and more civilian
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deaths the war between Israel and
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Hezbollah ended with a
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ceasefire did you completely destroy and
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Crush Hezbollah I think it's a big
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question and I think the honest answer
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will be no but I think after this spping
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point of the Beeper operation and the
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walkietalkie and then IDF attack put
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hisbah in a very very difficult
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situation no chain of command no spirit
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in their soldiers asking begging for a
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ceasefire so you restore your sense of
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superiority but what about your moral
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reputation don't you think Israel has to
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worry about its reputation definitely
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but there is a prioritization first you
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have to defense your people not being
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killed by the thousands and then the
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reputation the pagers have had a
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profound Rippling effect severely
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weakening Iran by leaving its proxy
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Empire in Ruins with Hezbollah shattered
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in Lebanon Assad toppled in
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Syria we asked agent Michael about the
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effect on Gaza how does that affect the
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situation with Hamas the wind was taken
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out of f bala's fight after the pager
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operation and I'm hoping that it will
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have an effect also on the Hamas and
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hostage situation because they're
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looking at their sides and they're
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seeing no one next to them they are
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completely isolated now in terms of uh
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the kind of warfare that was conducted
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with the walkie-talkies and the pagers
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would you call it a psychological War
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the day after the pagers uh exploded
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people were afraid to turn on the air
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conditioners in Lebanon because they
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were afraid that they would explode so
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there was there is real fear was that an
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intention we want them to feel
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vulnerable which they are we can't use
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the pages again because we already did
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that we've already moved on to the next
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thing and they'll have to keep on trying
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to guess what the next thing
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is a Lebanese journalist on Iran's
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waning influence Iran has been weakened
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tremendously at 6 60 minutes
00:13:29
overtime.com
