[cultureswitch]

Stuffing explosives into civilian appliances is the definition of indiscriminate.

If doing this isn't already banned by the Geneva Conventions, it is only because it wasn't practical to do. But then again, very little that has happened in this region during the last 80 years has been following any international law.

[dijit]

hardly, pagers might be accessible by the population, but hand delivered pagers distributed by a terror organisation are not exactly the same.

Panasonic Toughbooks are technically available to the civilian population, but booby trapping a shipment of them that would be delivered to the US military would be a pretty sophisticated military strike. Hardly indiscriminite even if people took them home.

[lm28469]

> hardly, pagers might be accessible by the population, but hand delivered pagers distributed by a terror organisation are not exactly the same.

Over god knows how many months you don't think they would spread ?

You don't think a dad would gift a pager to his kids or wife to stay in touch ?

[ilbeeper]

Are you seriously suggesting that you would give away a pager, handed to you by your operator so that he can send you messages, a one-way legacy communication device selected as as an alternative for standard common cellphone specifically to avoid the risk of you being tracked by an enemy?

[lm28469]

Ok "not a bot" ilbeeper who's account was created explicitly to regurgitate Israel talking points

[ilbeeper]

Not a bot. Just not wishing to connect my x years old user with anything related to politics. This is my only other account and that is within the site guidelines.

I'm an Israeli. So some of my views are aligned with Israel's official views. I would estimate the percentage of the alignment of my views with the current government at a single digit number. I have a negative, visceral reaction to Bibi, and can't stand hearing him even if I want to. I think Israel under the current government is doing almost every mistake possible, and takes the wrong decisions again and again, most probably due to Bibi's criminal issues and corrupted character.

[dijit]

No, I don't.

If the US military gives you a laptop, you don't give it to your kids for schoolwork.

[scbrg]

Not all organizations work as the US military. Or even as a US company.

I know nothing about Hezbollah, but there's a widespread opinion on HN that any equipment you get from "work" can absolutely only be used by yourself in said work environment. That's really not the case in all cultures, everywhere.

At my previous job, management clearly told us that we could use computers & printers for any personal activity, including paid side jobs, as long as we didn't compete with the company and didn't go completely overboard with the printers (personal judgement).

Not every organization is hostile to its employees/members.

I'm guessing Hezbollah is not comparable to the US military in many respects, and assumptions that hold true for the US military may not hold true for any other military or paramilitary group.

That said, I don't have particularly strong opinions about this attack, and I certainly do not support Hezbollah in any way. But this "it works like this here, therefore it works like this everywhere" mentality is a hindrance to understanding the situation - any situation.

[dijit]

If you're giving your personal communication devices away, given that it's used to summon you personally...

... honestly?

I have no words, that's fucking stupid.

It's not like it's a toy, or it can play games, or that it can be used reach out to a parent/guardian if a child is lost.

It's a pager, a receive only communication tool. An outmoded one by far, and given to you by your terrorist organisation to intentionally evade Israeli detection.

If you're giving it to your children, not only are you basically being negligent in your duties, you're also giving away something that has less utility than the device you used to use and likely have on standby.

[scbrg]

Perhaps. Still, in any pool of 3000 people it's fairly reasonable to assume that one or two (or ~2950) are "fucking stupid". Because people, as a rule, are.

If I'd let my prejudice run loose, I'd even argue that militant religious groups have an above average quota of "fucking stupid" people, so odds are indeed fairly good that some of these devices would make it into the hands of someone other than the original owner.

Some would argue that "being related to someone who is fucking stupid" is not a capital offence.

[lm28469]

> that it's used to summon you personally...

Man you sure know a lot about hezbollah internal processes... either that or you're full of shit

[lm28469]

> If the US military gives you a laptop, you don't give it to your kids for schoolwork.

And how does the US army relate to the hezbollah ?

[dijit]

Both are asking you to kill people and supplying you with equipment to do so.