More and more experts now seem to be ruling out the possibility of the pager explosions that killed at least 12 people and wounded nearly 3000 Hezbollah militants and sympathizers on September 17 as an act of cyber-attacks. They are more inclined to support the theory that the blasts were an Israeli operation by hiding explosive material within a new batch of about 5000 Taiwanese-made pagers that were “smuggled” into Lebanon by the Iran-backed extremist outfit.
As per the latest reports, scores of fresh explosions are being reported across Lebanon, 24 hours after over 4000 pagers exploded. Fresh explosions are now taking place in hand-held Walkie-Talkie VHF sets used by Hezbollah terrorists. According to reports, the death toll from walkie-talkie explosions has risen to at least 9.
If this narrative is “true,” notwithstanding Israel’s total silence as of now, then this gruesome episode involves two other countries – Taiwan, where the pagers are generally made, and Hungary, from where the pagers were procured by Hezbollah.
In all probability, Taiwan and Hungary are not directly involved, but such a perception cannot be easily dispelled given the growing support for Israel in recent years in both nations.
It could be argued that the Israeli intelligence must have found it easier to sabotage the pagers, inserting a small amount of explosives (allegedly three grams of explosives per page) and a detonator in them before they landed in Lebanon.
These pagers are apparently produced by a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo. According to the company, most of these low-tech wireless communication devices are sold in North America and Australia.
Taiwanese officials have said that they do not have any record of Gold Apollo pagers being shipped to Lebanon or the Middle East. Obviously, these have been smuggled out.
Gold Apollo’s founder and chairperson, Hsu Ching-Kuang, told reporters on September 17 that his company did not produce the AR924 model pagers used in Lebanon. However, he clarified that these were made by a European distributor, Budapest-based BAC Consulting KFT, which had established a “relationship” with Gold Apollo about three years ago.
The Gold Apollo founder was unapologetic about his long-standing relationship with BAC before they struck the brand licensing deal.
The only thing he recalled was one “odd” incident with BAC when a local Taiwanese bank delayed a bank transfer from the company because the local bank had suspicions about it. Hsu said the transfer might have come from a bank in the Middle East, though he did not reveal the name of the country where the bank was located.
Hungary’s Support For Israel
Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán’s support for Netanyahu has been steadfast, indeed. Budapest considers supporting Israel to be “essential for its security.”
Hungary supports the US administration’s “Vision for Peace” peace plan. The plan provides a realistic chance of finally bringing peace, security, and development to the Middle East.
This is also indicated by the normalization process that took place in 2020 between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. Nothing shows Hungary’s support better than the fact that only Hungary took part on a ministerial level among European countries at the signing ceremony of the peace agreement in Washington.
In recent years, Hungary claims to have consistently advocated a balanced approach towards Israel in various international forums. However, Hungary does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in Israel and does not support the Court’s investigation into Israel.
Budapest demands greater transparency with regard to EU-funded NGOs: “Our aim is to prevent European taxpayers’ money from reaching organizations linked to terrorism that are calling for a boycott of Israel. Hungary does not support any measure that could be interpreted as a sanction or boycott against Israel. Accordingly, we do not apply EU labeling rules for products coming from outside Israel’s internationally recognized borders. In addition, Hungary does not support politically motivated anti-Israel resolutions submitted to the UN or its bodies”.
Incidentally, the Presidency of the European Union for the year 2024 is occupied by Hungary.
It is also noteworthy that Orbán and Netanyahu have a long-standing relationship. Both have headed the governments of their respective countries periodically since the 1990s. Orbán has always been said to have been impressed by Netanyahu’s vision of how a small country like Israel could be turned into a strong nation-state.
Both have had one thing in common in their political careers and thus in the fate of Fidesz and Likud (their respective parties): they both have tried to stand up against strong left-wing headwinds and led their parties to victory most of the time.
Incidentally, their common enemy happens to be American billionaire George Soros. If Netanyahu is convinced that Soros’ money through his network of NGOs is indirectly going to Palestinian organizations that seek the destruction of Israel, Orbán accuses him of being anti-Semitic in his central European country, where Jews are in considerable numbers.
In fact, it is said that during the 2018 Hungarian election campaign, an Israeli private intelligence firm had played a role in discrediting Orbán’s political opponent by “exposing” his links with an NGO linked to Soros.
If one views all the things mentioned above, it is but natural to find an Israeli angle to the Hezbollah exploding pager trail that runs from Taiwan to Hungary.
