by Yossi Melman
No doubt Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar deserved to die. Even in the context and perspective of a terrorist organization he was an exception.
Since his twenties as a young terrorist, he was known for his cruelty and sadistic instincts. He specialized in torturing and murdering his Palestinian brothers whom he suspected of being collaborators with Israel. In 1988, he was sentenced to life in prison, not for killing his Israeli enemies but for the murder of Palestinians, some of them innocent.
He was released after 22 years in a shameful swap in which one Israeli soldier (Gilad Shalit) was released for more than 1,000 Palestinian terrorists. The deal was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who wanted to divert attention from the then-unprecedented street protests against his failed economic and social policies, which were threatening to topple his government.
Seven years after his prison release Sinwar climbed to the top and became the undisputed leader of Hamas in Gaza.
In retrospect, his decision to launch the surprising and brutal invasion of Israel with instructions to kill, torture and rape with no mercy civilian Israelis women, men, children and babies was a result of his hubris.
It was a fatal mistake. Contrary to his hope, Iran and Hezbollah didn’t join him in his plan to destroy together the Jewish state and settled only for a relatively minor war of attrition.
History will not remember him as he aspired to be known, a new, modern-era Salah al-Din, liberator of Muslim lands from the heretics and restorer of dignity, but rather as another leader in the long chain of Palestinian leaders who inflicted one more calamity on his people. It was Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban who said that the “Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
Gaza is being destroyed. Tens of thousands of people, including women, children and babies, have been killed and wounded. More than 200,000 are displaced and homeless and many are starved and exposed to epidemics.
It was clear that sooner or later, Sinwar would be killed. For several months he was a dead man wandering from one tunnel to another. From one shelter to another safe space underground. Yet, he needed to surface from time to time to breathe fresh air.
In a war against the most elusive rival, one needs no more than a split second for the enemy to make a mistake or have no choice but to take a risk. Other Hamas commanders, such as Mohammad Deif, had a similar fate.
Yet, it is worth noting that the Israeli troops reached him not because of accurate intelligence but purely accidentally.
It was hard to grasp how the glorified Israeli intelligence — at least until October 6, although recently it has been salvaging its reputation — managed to obtain accurate information on the whereabouts of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his top commanders in Beirut and to kill them – but failed to reach Sinwar.
Contrary to Israeli intelligence forecasts – echoed by the Israeli media, which is happy to serve the security establishment – Sinwar, like other Hamas commanders, found his death without being surrounded by “a human shield” of Israeli hostages.
It’s only human to understand why the Israeli public is in a euphoric mood.
Even the most liberal and rational people are not immune from the desire to express anger publicly as well as schadenfreude.
Yet by publishing, not only on social media, but also on mainstream television channels the horror photo of Sinwar’s corpse lying in the ruins, abusing Palestinian bodies and celebrating their death, Israel resembles more a Middle Eastern nation and less and less a western democracy.
No doubt Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galant and the rest of the government will exploit this success for their political gains. It will also help the Chief of Staff Lt-General Herzi Halevi to blur his responsibility for October 7, the biggest military and intelligence failure in the history of of Israel since its establishment in 1948.
But one has to remember the following list: Fathi Shqaqi, Imad Mughniyeh, Ahmad Jabri, Marwan Issa, Muhamad Deif, Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah and many other leaders and commanders of terrorist organizations – Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad – were killed by Israeli security forces. Yet their organizations, despite the blows and setbacks are still alive and kicking motivated by the zealous Islamic Jihad ideology.
It is said that throughout history graveyards are filled with people who were considered irreplaceable. Yahya might be replaced by his brother Ahmad Sinwar, a top commander of Hamas, who is still in Gaza.
Two important conclusions can be drawn from the death of Sinwar:
The opportunity to release the 101 hostages – probably only a few dozen are still alive – is retreating. Israel and the countries involved in the efforts to broker the deal may find that there is no address in Gaza to negotiate their release.
We may well discover also that in a bid for revenge, Hamas members with no coherent central command will kill more hostages.
The other conclusion is that a cease fire and negotiated solution will now be harder to achieve. There is a growing temptation by Netanyahu and his radical right wing cabinet to conquer, control and annex part of Gaza, which the history of the West Bank taught us, will lead to building Jewish settlements and the confiscation of Palestinian lands.
Netanyahu has opposed from the first week of the war establishing an alternative administration to Hamas in Gaza. This will lead to more chaos and a power vacuum and may turn Gaza into a new lawless Somalia without central governance, and a hotbed for more radical Jihad groups like ISIS.
Above all, the killing of Sinwar will only strengthen Netanyahu’s hubris and self-confidence. He has no wish to end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, regardless of the daily price young Israelis are paying in blood. Under Netanyahu, Israeli society, which has lost in the last year more than 1,700 civilians and troops and was known for its sensitivity to human life, has become apathetic to the human cost. Netanyahu and his cult -like disciples coined the slogan “total victory,” but its true meaning is “total regime.”
Courtesy: The Haaretz
