Amanpour & Co. covered Israel’s bravura anti-terrorist tactic of rerigging and then mass-detonating communication gear (pages and walkie-talkies) used by the Iran-based terrorist group Hezbollah, killing and maiming thousands of terrorists. Israel was acting in response to Hezbollah firing rockets from its base in Lebanon since Hamas carried out its invasion and civilian rape and massacre October 7.
But Christiane Amanpour and her CNN reporter in the field petulantly framed the humiliating attack on Hezbollah’s operatives from the terrorist group’s perspective, with a particular focus on the Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader since 1992, Friday morning on PBS:
Amanpour: And we begin in Lebanon, where the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has condemned the back-to-back attacks targeting the group's pagers and walkie-talkie communication system. In a speech, he said that all the red lines had been crossed. And he called the explosions massacres. They killed dozens and injured thousands of people. He also warned Israel that Hezbollah's forces on the border won't stop until the war in Gaza ends….
Amanpour talked to CNN reporter Ben Wedeman in Beirut, who chided Israel’s tactics which so expertly targeted terrorists.
Ben Wedeman, CNN Senior International Correspondent: They coincided with Nasrallah's speech. And, you know, first there was that flyover where I was live and heard a roar and saw these Israeli jets flying right overhead, dropping flares, heat-deflecting flares over the middle of Beirut. That's an obvious message, not a very subtle one. Sort of adding insult to injury after those two days of pager and walkie-talkie blasts. And then, just about 20 minutes after that, again, two Israeli planes flying over Beirut, twice breaking the sound barrier.
It's not the first time that such events have coincided with Nasrallah's speech, but a very unsubtle message from the Israelis that this is what we can do. We can fly our warplanes right over where Hezbollah is headquartered in the southern suburbs of Beirut and not just drop flares, but drop much more. And it comes at a time, of course, of unprecedented tension. And I think over the last seven visits to Lebanon since this war began in Gaza, I think this is perhaps the most tense time of all. This is an escalation, the likes of which we haven't yet seen….
Wedeman seemed concerned that the light had gone out of Nasrallah’s eyes, that the man “famous for his sense of humor” (anti-Semitic jokes?) was now worried and tired.
Wedeman: ….Hezbollah has always had a reputation as being a very tightly controlled organization, very disciplined, very able to sort of keep its secrets. And it prided itself that it has not been infiltrated, for instance, like Fatah, the Palestinian faction that operated in Gaza and is still in the West Bank. That there aren't a lot of traitors to Hezbollah among its ranks.
Now, there are serious questions about how good they actually are at maintaining internal security. So, yes, Nasrallah was not his usual sort of, despite all events, somewhat jovial self. He's famous for his sense of humor. He often chuckles during his speech. This time he looked tired and he looked very concerned. Christiane.
Amanpour is notoriously anti-Israel, and Wedeman also has a history of finding the sympathetic side of anti-Israeli terrorist groups in the region like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not even a week after the October 6 massacre of Israeli civilians, he lamented, “Israel's wrath is now unleashed upon Gaza…. In this cramped strip of land along the Mediterranean, 2 million Palestinians are now in the crosshairs of an enemy bent on revenge for Hamas' surprise attack...."
(Amanpour & Co. airs on tax-funded PBS after first airing on CNN International.)
A transcript is available, click “Expand.”
Amanpour & Co.
9/20/24
1:32:20 a.m. (ET)
AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. And we begin in Lebanon, where the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has condemned the back-to-back attacks targeting the group's pagers and walkie- talkie communication system.
In a speech, he said that all the red lines had been crossed. And he called the explosions massacres. They killed dozens and injured thousands of people. He also warned Israel that Hezbollah's forces on the border won't stop until the war in Gaza ends. At the same time, Israeli fighter jets screamed over the capital, Beirut, appearing to drop flares. And the IDF said it is striking targets in Lebanon. And all of this is raising concerns about an all-out war and raising those concerns to a new level, after Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant's warning yesterday that a new phase of this conflict is beginning. So, let's get the latest from Beirut now with Ben Wedeman. Ben, you've been, you know, covering this nonstop. What has been the highest point of tension today? What were those flights over Beirut, the capital, doing?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, they coincided with Nasrallah's speech. And, you know, first there was that flyover where I was live and heard a roar and saw these Israeli jets flying right overhead, dropping flares, heat deflecting flares over the middle of Beirut. That's an obvious message, not a very subtle one. Sort of adding insult to injury after those two days of pager and walkie-talkie blasts.
And then, just about 20 minutes after that, again, two Israeli planes flying over Beirut, twice breaking the sound barrier. It's not the first time that such events have coincided with Nasrallah's speech, but a very unsubtle message from the Israelis that this is what we can do. We can fly our warplanes right over where Hezbollah is headquartered in the southern suburbs of Beirut and not just drop flares, but drop much more.
And it comes at a time, of course, of unprecedented tension. And I think over the last seven visits to Lebanon since this war began in Gaza, I think this is perhaps the most tense time of all. This is an escalation, the likes of which we haven't yet seen.
Now, what was interesting in Nasrallah's speech, Christiane, is that he did concede that these pager and walkie-talkie blasts were an unprecedented major blow in terms of personnel as well as the Hezbollah's security, but he insisted that the group will continue to support Gaza in the form of firing upon targets within Israel. And he said the only way that they will stop, regardless of what Israel does, is when Israel stops its war in Gaza. Christiane.
AMANPOUR: So, Ben, you know, you've described the speech and he obviously did what he was expecting to do and said there'll be retaliation. But you also said he looked a bit tired. And I wonder whether your sources are telling you what they think might happen next.
WEDEMAN: No, we don't. And certainly, he was not very emphatic about Hezbollah's retaliation for this week's blast in Lebanon. Back in late July and early August, in the aftermath of the assassination of Fuad Shukr, that senior Hezbollah military commander, he was very emphatic that revenge is coming. There's no question about it. He put it in very definitive terms. This time he said there will be an accounting, but we will decide when and where that will happen.
So, he looked tired. We know that Hezbollah has been rattled as a result of this week's events, that they are feeling perhaps more insecure and more vulnerable than they have in quite some time. You know, Hezbollah has always had a reputation as being a very tightly controlled organization, very disciplined, very able to sort of keep its secrets. And it prided itself that it has not been infiltrated, for instance, like Fatah, the Palestinian faction that operated in Gaza and is still in the West Bank. That there aren't a lot of traitors to Hezbollah among its ranks. Now, there are serious questions about how good they actually are at maintaining internal security. So, yes, Nasrallah was not his usual sort of, despite all events, somewhat jovial self. He's famous for his sense of humor. He often chuckles during his speech. This time he looked tired and he looked very concerned. Christiane.
AMANPOUR: Well, it certainly is a really important time. Thank you. Thank you for being there and giving us that report.
