*Photo: AI Image for illustration only
Yahya Sinwar, architect of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and known even to Palestinians as “the butcher of Kahn Yunis,” was killed last week in Gaza by an IDF patrol. The details, as well as Sinwar’s horrific past, are widely known. Here are some insights that are less well known. If you have additional questions, please feel very free to contact us and we will address them in a future post/email.
Sinwar was sentenced in 1989 to four life sentences in Israeli prison for orchestrating the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he considered to be “collaborators.” As part of a 2011 deal to recover Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza, Sinwar was released with about 1,000 other prisoners, confirming for Hamas that hostage-taking (apparently) works. Along with Sinwar, many of those former prisoners played key roles in the October 7 massacre.
During his sentence, Israeli doctors performed brain surgery to save Sinwar from cancer. The surgeon’s nephew, Tamir Adar, was among those murdered by Sinwar’s fanatics on October 7. Israeli hospitals continue to treat Sinwar’s family, including his sister who gave birth last February in Israel’s Soroka Medical Center, even as Sinwar was fighting in Gaza and holding Israelis hostage.
The mood here in Israel is one of quiet satisfaction, relief, even a sense of justice. Israelis hope that Sinwar’s death leads to greater safety, and to the return of the 101 remaining hostages. Yet unlike America in the days following the 2011 assassination of Osama Bin Laden, which saw euphoric parties on the streets, Israelis are not celebrating. There are several reasons why and each gives unique insight into the Israeli soul.
For one thing, Israelis feel that events never should have come to this point in the first place: we are slowly and painstakingly trying to rebuild the internal safety and regional deterrence that we never should have lost. Of course, we also remain painfully aware of the 101 hostages are still in Gaza, and nothing will feel quite like a victory until they are all home. Israel’s northern residents have yet to return to their homes, and we are still fighting on 7 different fronts, including in Gaza. Sinwar’s death is an important step, but for all that, only a step. This is far from over.
Yet there is another reason, deeper and more subtle, for Israel’s subdued reaction: in 14 years living in Israel, I’ve never seen Israelis celebrate the death of anyone – not Hamas chief Ismael Haniye, or Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah, not Iranian nuclear scientists or (historically speaking) even PLO chairman (and architect of the “Second Intifada”) Yassir Arafat. Israelis recognize self-defense as a painful necessity, maybe even a source of quiet satisfaction for a difficult job well done, but not a source of joy. Israelis find joy in holidays, in our Independence Day, births, graduations and weddings, but not in killing: even when it’s the right thing to do.
The world, in particular liberals of the world, can (and should) learn an important lesson from Israel: that one can stand fundamentally against war and killing, yet also accept its necessity when faced with threats to our lives, our safety and our most basic humanity. This apparent paradox, which is also a fundamental truth, lies at the core of the Israeli soul.
The United States expressed pride in Israel’s capabilities, even taking partial credit, for example Vice President Kamala Harris’s statement, “…to any terrorist who kills Americans…we will always bring you to justice.” Yet Harris glossed over the fact that Sinwar was killed in Rafah, an area of Gaza that Harris herself, along with the Biden administration, had furiously pressured Israel to not enter, including by withholding critical military resupply.
*Photo: AI Image for illustration only
In contrast to global pride and awe over Israel’s effectiveness, in the days before Sinwar’s death The White House issued (and publicly leaked) a letter threatening an arms embargo against Israel, the UK threatened to begin placing international sanctions on Israeli members of Knesset, and France cut off military sales. There is both a superficial rationale for these actions as well as a deeper truth that points toward a global shift in the world order.
Superficially, these actions are over topics such as humanitarian aid in Gaza (notwithstanding that Hamas continues to steal much of it) and protecting UNRWA (the UN agency charged with aiding Palestinians but which in reality has been exposed as directly aiding Hamas, including militarily) and absurd claims that Israel is committing “genocide” (utterly unsupported by relevant numbers, data, and basic common sense).
Yet there is another possible reason for international pressure on Israel: though welcome, Israel’s victories are also humiliating. France, for example, considers itself a kind of elder statesman to its former colony of Lebanon, yet proved impotent against Hezbollah’s (and by extension Iran’s) takeover of the entire country. Great Britain, former administer of the “British Mandate of Palestine,” has proved utterly without influence over Palestinian terror groups. And of course, the United States has found itself incapable of managing world events, bringing back American hostages from Gaza, protecting its own service people from Iranian attacks, protecting international shipping from Iran’s proxies, or even bringing justice to terrorists on America’s own “most wanted” lists.
Israel is accomplishing many of these tasks with astounding speed and alacrity including: dismantling terror groups, degrading Iranian influence, bringing America’s enemies to justice, and in many cases, doing so against direct international pressure. In short, Israel is exercising the very kind of independence and global influence that the world’s former colonial powers used to believe that they alone possessed. The Middle East is on the verge of potentially becoming safer, more prosperous and more independent, and that is something that really is worth celebrating.
