Weaponizing the technology used by people - finally exposed by Israel

As I recall, it was around forty years ago, in my oral presentation (titled; the fallacy of USAID) as a journalism student, I had touched upon the subject of military aid and called those war planes sold to countries - in return to the US aids received - as "very expensive toys for the generals which cannot be used against the US or against any US close allies". The technology then was not even close to what it is now, however the US had the technology to insert a tiny device inside the plane to monitor whereabouts of the plane (nowadays we call GPS location) and if necessary, to disable the plane, or make it an easy target for the US planes. I was told that it is a conspiracy theory can only come from the Soviets. I smiled then and I am smiling forty years later now. 

What has the Israeli action in Lebanon revealed is that every technological product can be weaponized at some level of its production and be used for the purposes of surveillance and if and when it is necessary; for destruction.  This is not the question of the use of internet and the weaponization of  digital foot print the personal users leave behind. That subject is widely studied and well known; how it is weaponized and used against the individuals. This is the question of weaponizing the technology in its literal meaning, for physically harming and destruction by nation-states. Israel's action in Lebanon confirmed the factuality of  what most called as "conspiracy theories". With some obvious exceptions, every theory is based on and derives from some concrete facts and beliefs. It is a conspiracy theory for some and factual for others depending on the ideological make up of the sides and the character of their minds; slave mind that accepts everything presented by the dominant ideology mind managers or critical mind  that questions everything presented to be fact. As the history, especially the latest history has proven that most information classified as "misinformation" by the dominating sources has turned out to be correct, if not all , most information given to the public turned out to be misinformation.  That's why what conspiracy theory is or what is not is revealed by time and mostly depends on "who calls it as conspiracy theory". 

Israel's action has revealed a historical reality of  weaponizing of everything that can be used for the end game by the powers that be. However, desperation pushes one to dumbest actions. Exploding the pagers and walki-talkies have surpassed  the dumb act of Ukraine's incursion to Kursk.

Weaponizing of pagers and (possibly) many other such electronic gadgets has only one-time use purpose. According to ex-US military and CIA officers, Its main purpose is gathering information about the enemy (which they stated that US has been using for decades). Its use as a weapon is the last action if and when its use-purpose is expired or benefit of use of it as a weapon overweigh the value of it as information gathering. It is a special weapon that can only be used once. It is a special gun with one special bullet; use it and throw it.

Did the use of it as a weapon benefited Israel? Not in any conceivable way but created more problems for them both economically and politically. 

First of all, it looks like they exposed the possibility of weaponizing and using  these communication gadgets. Since US has been using it, every country will take the necessary precaution against it. 

Secondly; having a technology based economy, by exposing itself to entire world as unreliable and insidious trade partner, Israel's technology trade will receive a heavy blow. They literally closed the only door to jumpstart their already collapsing economy (we may call it already collapsed economy).

Thirdly; technology companies will be hesitant in using parts from Israeli manufacturers  or subcontractor companies for their products. Since the US is an inseparable partner of Israel, most likely the US will face such reaction in so many countries.  The manufacturer of the walki-talkies are found to be a Taiwanese company representative of which claimed the product has been manufactured in Hungary. Hungarian authorities claim there is no such manufacturer company in Hungary. So another partner of the US is under the microscope as co-conspirator. 

Fourthly; most of their such products on the shelves will be taken out of shelves or will have less buyers. Most people, institutions and companies using such products will be going through the research process to find out if any part of them is produced by Israel. Buyers of such technologies will be looking for reliable countries and manufacturers to meet their demands.

Lastly and most importantly, social chat applications used as a trigger such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger will be removed from the cellular phones, in cars etc., by so many people and most likely by car manufacturers. No one would like to be a "collateral damage" while using their phones, walki-talkies even their cars equipped with such technological functions. According to social posts, people in some countries already uninstalling applications assumed to be under Israel control. It is probably overreacting in most countries but with some justification in others.

As a conclusion, a desperate dumb action with no significant military gain will cause Israel (and US) the loss of a great surveillance and information gathering tool, but also will put its credibility and trade in question.

Erdogan A

September 19, 2024

Thailand