Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead. And Israel will celebrate like America did after killing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. But killing Sinwar won’t “destroy Hamas” any more than killing bin Laden destroyed al-Qaeda. In its “war on terror,” America invaded and destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq. It killed hundreds of thousands of innocents to get bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. But those misadventures only proved Hosni Mubarak right: collective punishment and wanton destruction will inspire a thousand more bin Ladens. Killing Sinwar, like killing ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, will only prove his point.
Meanwhile, this “devastating blow” to Hamas hasn’t freed a single one of the 100 hostages. Netanyahu seems content to keep paying lip service to them. But there’s no greater indictment of his genocidal rampage in Gaza than their ongoing captivity and uncertain fate.
Frankly, killing terrorist leaders smacks of masturbatory violence. It creates martyrs and spawns even more radical groups. More to the point, decapitating terrorists in this whack-a-mole fashion only sabotages the political negotiations needed for peace. But, for Netanyahu, peace with the Palestinians, normalization with the Saudis, and even the release of Israeli hostages be damned.
That’s why the Middle East is trapped in a never-ending cycle of violence. This explains why Israel and Iran are exchanging ballistic blows, even as Israel wraps up its wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Indeed, this killing exposes the absurdity of Netanyahu’s mission. After all, destroying Hamas and Hezbollah in the Middle East is even more Sisyphean than ending world hunger in Africa. Of course, Netanyahu knows it. But he’d rather trigger World War III than face prosecution. The only future he sees is as a war hero, serving for life, not as a crook, serving life in prison.
Therefore, I fear the killing of terrorist leaders will go on, even if it means the mass slaughter of innocents. So, until the next 9/11, 7/7, or Oct. 7.
