EDITORIAL: White House seems annoyed at Israel’s military success

Israel has just pulled off one of the greatest military and intelligence operations in world history. On Tuesday, pagers distributed to Hezbollah members exploded in Lebanon. The next day, walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded, too. Combined, the blasts killed more than 30 people and injured more than 3,000.

Before you throw your iPhone out the window, know this wasn’t an accident. Several months ago, Hezbollah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah demanded his members ditch their cellphones. He worried that the Israelis could compromise the devices and use them to spy on them. He gave his members pagers and told his officers to always have the devices with them.

Hezbollah isn’t a social club. It’s an Iranian-backed militant group that operates out of Lebanon, which sits on Israel’s northern border. It is a terrorist group that’s attacked both U.S. and Israeli targets. In 1983, it bombed the U.S. Embassy and a Marine barracks, both in Beirut. These attacks killed hundreds of Americans. Since the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, Hezbollah has launched thousands of rockets into Israel. That’s forced around 60,000 people who live in Northern Israel to leave the area.

Reporting suggests that Israel created a pager company years ago. To most of its clients, it sold normal pagers. But it was all an elaborate cover. It wanted to position itself to sell pagers to Hezbollah, which it modified by putting explosives in the batteries.

There are two obvious reactions to this. The first is awe. The foresight, audacity, bravery, skill and coordination it took to pull this off is the stuff of legends. Hezbollah and terrorists throughout the region should fear what else Israel can do.

The second is celebration. Israel incapacitated thousands of would-be terrorists — as selected by Hezbollah leadership. This group included Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon. Anyone who blames Israel for the comparatively few civilian casualties is functionally opposed to Israel defending itself.

But the Biden-Harris administration seems annoyed. Secretary of State Antony Blinken complained the attack could hinder a cease-fire deal in the Gaza Strip.

“We’ve seen an event that makes the process more difficult, might derail it,” he said.

If only Mr. Blinken had informed the Israelis how successful the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was. Oh wait. This reaction is more evidence that the Biden-Harris administration is allergic to military success.

This is a stunning achievement for Israel. Her allies, including the United States, should applaud her for it.