10-18-2024
By Jonathan Feldstein
As Israelis celebrated the first day of the Biblical festival Sukkot (Tabernacles), news broke of the elimination of Hamas terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar. (You can see this video of his last moments filmed by an Israeli drone.) While Sinwar is dead, there are many uncertainties important to consider as the war against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran continue and even heat up.
In the wake of his death, it’s been revealed that Sinwar’s DNA was found in the tunnel network in which the bodies of six Israeli hostages were found several weeks ago, having been executed hours before after being forced to make propaganda videos for Hamas. It is widely known that Sinwar used the hundreds of miles of terror tunnels under Gazan cities in which he hid, in which Hamas stored vast weapons and cash, and which were under private homes even accessible through children’s bedrooms, to use Gazan civilians and the hostages as human shields.
Western leaders including President Biden and Vice President Harris made statements celebrating Sinwar’s death, even complimenting Israel on the operation that killed him.
It’s especially noteworthy that Sinwar was found and eliminated in the southern Gaza city, Rafah, adjacent to the border with Egypt. Ironically, many world leaders including Biden and Harris urged and even threatened Israel not to enter Rafah, much less to engage Hamas or undertake major military action against it, fearing major civilian casualties. Not only were their concerns unjustified as Israel took the battle to Hamas terrorists directly, it’s because of this offensive against Hamas, and the destruction of their tunnels, that at least in part forced Sinwar out of the tunnels to begin with.
Basically, along with finding hostages in Rafah, Biden, Harris, and all the others who are now spiking the ball in the end zone, talking about how US intelligence cooperates with Israel, and those who kill Americans will be hunted down, all highlight how wrong they were at the outset, and how they in fact held Israel back.
This week a friend said that Israel should just bomb Sinwar, wherever he is, even if he is hiding behind hostages. I challenged this, not just because of the risk of killing hostages. I asked what killing Sinwar would actually do, of course not that killing him was not right or justified, and risking the hostages. Now that he’s gone, thankfully without civilian casualties, we can assess what will be.
As important as Sinwar’s death is, it doesn’t change the reality that Israel remains at war to destroy Hamas and release all the hostages, that war is expanding and may yet continue to do so, getting worse before it gets better. There may be a momentary vacuum in Hamas’ leadership structure, but there are still no shortage of terrorist leaders. They still possess many weapons, there are still tunnels being used to hide these, themselves and the hostages, they are still hijacking humanitarian supplies being trucked in by the dozens each day and preventing these reaching Gazan civilians. And they are still hiding under and behind these civilians, placing them in harms way as human shields.
Sinwar may be dead, but Hamas remains alive and well.
Speculation is rife about whether his death will make getting the hostages back easier or harder. It could be easier if Hamas terrorists holding the hostages, as hardened and genocidal as their views are vis a vis Israel and the Jewish people, realize they could be next. This could be the opportunity for them, or civilians around them who know where hostages are being held, to release the hostages and make their own deal. Or at least to move themselves out of the IDF’s crosshairs.
Or, not budging from their extremist Islamic views, they may actually believe that when they follow Sinwar they will be martyrs and receive 72 virgins in heaven. If the hate on which they have been raised, and indoctrinated others for generations is so deep, pragmatism and western values have no value.
International pressure could make a difference and is long overdue, if exerted in the right direction. The US in particular needs to pressure Qatar to expel Hamas and give it no protection or funding. This should have been done a year ago.
NATO needs to pressure Islamist Turkey to stop allowing safe haven to Hamas, or be expelled from NATO.
All world powers need to be completely on board to exert maximum pressure on Iran as the head of the octopus whose terrorist tentacles threaten the entire world. These must include maximum sanctions, targeting their nuclear weapons facilities, IRGC leaders and military sites, and, yes, the Supreme Leader. Only through cutting off the head of the octopus – the largest state sponsor of terror in the world – that its terrorist tentacles will wither and die.
These are things that the world leaders can and must undertake. Individuals can pray, and must put their prayer into action through advocacy. People from dozens of nations have signed a critical petition to release all the hostages. Unique in this petition is the call to the UN and the Red Cross which have abdicated their responsibility to do anything to release the hostages, the G7, and the heads of the 30+ countries whose citizens were kidnapped on October 7, 2023.
The petition goes against the reflexive and dominant pressure on Israel to make concessions, including a ceasefire, or making the mistake again of releasing thousands of hardened terrorists with blood on their hands. Had Israel not released Sinwar (who studied Hebrew and took many classes toward a degree at Israel’s Open University while in prison) in the 2011 deal that saw him and 1026 other terrorists set free, perhaps we might not be in the war in which we are. Either way, pressure on Israel is misguided at best, and will not influence the terrorists in any positive direction.
Even with the release of the hostages and elimination of top terrorist leaders from Gaza to Beirut to Tehran, in order to achieve actual peace, we must change the hearts of millions of Gazans, other Palestinian Arabs, and Islamic extremists worldwide. While it’s definitely a time to celebrate, actual peace will only come when the solution for peace in Gaza is realized.