Israel, with US help, quietly implemented three tech-based operations to lash out at neighboring countries: Iran, Lebanon and Syria. The operations were clever, ruthless, and outside international law. Jeffrey S Myers tells the incredible story.
A STUDY OF THE TIMELINES leading to Israel’s illegal attack on Iran reveals that the operation was planned long in advance, with US help—and the final stages carefully choreographed.
It’s an extraordinary story. But it’s bigger than just a military assault on Iran. The fact is, while the world’s eyes were on starvation in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu was actually focusing on hostile operations in three different neighboring nations simultaneously: Iran, Lebanon and Syria.
And with US help, all three were deemed successful. The full details, which are not widely known, are astonishing.
1. IRAN
Two days after Donald Trump’s inauguration as US President on 20 January, 2025, he lifted the ban imposed by the Biden administration on the transfer of 2,000-lb “bunker buster” bombs to Israel.
Given his electoral mandate of “stopping wars and not starting any more”, this should have raised eyebrows. But even more important was the amount of heavyweight munition being shipped to Israel. Clearly, there was more than enough for use in Gaza. Was another location going to be targeted?
The January shipment quietly turned into monthly shipments with estimated numbers of 1,500 to 2,000 major munitions. One source reported in April that MOAB’s (GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bombs, 30,000 lbs each) were included in the shipments.
Why so many major weapons?
This seemed unnecessary since the friction level was low and falling. In March testimony to lawmakers, intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard said her agents “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003”.
Corresponding with this, the Trump administration said nuclear negotiations with Iran were going well, with a fourth meeting starting in late May. Donald Trump said on 27 May that the two sides were close to finalizing their positions. Iran agreed to forego enrichment to military grade in exchange for lifting of sanctions.
Peace was about to break out.
But then the narrative changed.
VERY DIFFERENT STORY
On 31 May, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report indicating (for the first time in their entire monitoring process) that Iran had breached conditions and had amassed a record amount of military-grade enriched uranium.
The US began evacuating its embassies across the region the following week. They officially announced the news on the 11 June, although they had been busily evacuating for a full week by then.
That same week Trump was provided a range of strike options by CENTCOM against Iran. Also on 11 June, the UK issued a threat advisory for ships in the Persian Gulf. The following day, the IAEA issued its formal notification of Iran’s breach of the non-proliferation obligations.
Israel launched their attacks the day after that, on 13 June, at 3:30 am.
The US’s official position was one of surprise. But Trump’s constantly shifting position on the matter has made this stance hard to maintain.
2. LEBANON
Lebanon, despite being largely under US control, is home to many people with reason to dislike Israel—some of whom have joined a group called Hezbollah—freedom fighters or terrorists, depending on your point of view. They were spread across Lebanon and Syria.
To destroy them, Netanyahu’s agents used several companies, include one in Taiwan that had long specialized in making personalized pager and walkie-talking devices for US intelligence agents. The plan was called Operation Grim Beeper.
The September 2024 operation, involving booby-trapped electronic devices, led to deaths of 42 people, including children, and injuries to four thousand people, many of whom were innocent civilians.
But Israel and the US saw it as a successful operation to kill Hezbollah staff from mid-level operational people to senior command and control specialists.
The internal recognition of the depth of the penetration sent shockwaves through the Hezbollah hierarchy. It was here the remaining staff made a fatal mistake, which led to an even more devastating blow.
Secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah called a top-level meeting to be held September 27th: Israel was waiting and consequently eliminated him and his entire military council in a single attack.
The survivors are trying to regroup but have not recovered from that attack. That weakened position led to the execution of the next phase.
3. SYRIA
Israel and the US agents apparently worked with a group called Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, to quietly takeover the Syrian Army in 2024. Both HTS and ISIS emerged from al-Qaeda in Iraq, which evolved from various Afghan groups supported and funded by the CIA’s Operation Cyclone.
Again, they used technology for a black op.
Key tools, used in 2024, were an NGO and an online app. These were used to map out the command structures and deployments of the Syrian army – and identify its weaknesses.
The operation allegedly used an NGO associated with the Syrian President’s wife, Asma al-Assad. Whether this was realized at the time is unknown. The operation focused on giving out small financial handouts to troops who had not been paid for some time, offering a stipend to support them under an NGO umbrella. Initial registration required basic details, name, rank number, unit, rudimentary identifiers basically.
Within several months the rudimentary details expanded to include roles, function, position, responsibilities, etc. It was then slowly expanded to gather as much operational data of physical deployments as possible.
This then led to infiltrations and mapping of the deployments and identification of tactical weaknesses that were then exploited by HTS when they launched their lightning assault in December 2024.
HTS rolled over the Syrian Army, dissecting their defenses and blowing through their weak lines, identifying the weakest defended and under-protected facilities, and swept down to Damascus in a mere 10 days.
Bashar al-Assad was presented with an analysis of the extent of the penetration into his own army and realized his side had no hope: he had to leave the country.
CONCLUSION
All three operations above were carried out in defiance of international laws designed to maintain peace between the countries of the world. But, as has been shown repeatedly, the US and its allies can break international laws, causing major loss of life, with impunity. Perhaps the biggest question is this: How long can such a blatantly unfair system last?
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Jeffrey S. Myers is the pen name of international geopolitical analyst with a special focus on Asia