That’s patently ridiculous. You don’t start a war because your technology might be obsolete in a few months. I doubt the Israeli military is led around by a technological nose ring.

I think you're misunderstanding the point. This isn't a technology issue.

Israel started implementing the pager operation in the spring of this year. The plan was that the pagers would be detonated as part of a full-scale war against Hezbollah. The pager operation, if successful, would cripple Hezbollah's communications network and maim some non-trivial number of their personnel - which would give Israel considerable tactical advantages in the early stages of an escalation of hostilities.

The specific timing of when to "push the button" on the pagers was fluid. Once implemented, the pager tactic would only be successful if it wasn't discovered. The pagers were sabotaged by Israel - they were adulterated with several grams of explosive and separate computer hardware to allow for remote detonation. If that were discovered, Hezbollah would be able to avoid the trap.

So the decision to possibly go to war appears to have been made much earlier in the year. The pagers started shipping in the spring. The specific timing of when to set them off may have been driven by Hezbollah's suspicions, not by any specific desire on the part of Israel to start this phase off before or after either 10/7 or 11/5.

Again, exceedingly unlikely that any of this was driven by the US election cycle. I have no doubt that Netanyahu prefers a second Trump term to President Harris, but that was probably not a significant consideration in this specific decision.