Killing Sinwar Will Not End the War in Gaza

 

17 October 2024 by Larry C. Johnson 130 Comments

Yahya Sinwar

Israel is busy taking a victory lap after they unexpectedly killed Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, who was caught in an Israeli tank strike. Sinwar was not the most photogenic fellow and his savage visage provided the West with an ideal villain. He looks evil, therefore he must be. While the Zionists love to use the imagery of “cutting-off the head of the snake,” I think they are grossly exaggerating Sinwar’s importance of his death and his significance to the movement. From the Palestinian perspective, he died a hero’s death. He was not cowering in a tunnel. He was on the field of battle, carrying a weapon and fighting.

Images like this, while sating the blood lust of some in the West, is likely to cement Sinwar’s status as a heroic martyr and rally beleaguered Palestinian youths to join Hamas and continue the fight. Hamas is not a rigid, hierarchical organization. It is a diffuse and flexible group. I believe Sinwar’s presence on the battlefield is an example of that. If Hamas had a central command center coordinating all operations, Sinwar would have been there instead of recklessly exposing himself out in the open.

Hamas is proving to behave more like mercury when struck — it fragments into smaller, separate globules, but retains the capacity to attack and damage the Zionist forces in Gaza. In this regard, I think Hamas shares an ironic similarity to the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto who rose up against the Nazis in April 1943, only they are better armed and trained than the Jewish youths who battled the Germans. The Zionists, whether they know it or not, are creating a Palestinian version of Masada. While the Jews who fought against the Romans at Masada ultimately died, their sacrifice created a legend that Jews have celebrated through the Centuries. I think we are witnessing something similar taking place with the Palestinians. They are managing to survive against seemingly insurmountable odds.

Unlike Masada, where the Jewish defenders committed suicide, the Palestinians are dying at the hands of the Zionist military forces. It would be one thing if the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) was focused on battling armed insurgents, but the horrific reality is that the Zionists are engaged in active genocide and wantonly killing civilians. This is a stain on Israel that will mark it for generations to come, if it survives. Killing women and children is a soul destroying endeavor and will scar the consciences of many of the IOF soldiers. Remember, one of the reasons that the Germans started using gas to carry out large-scale executions of Jews in Poland is that a large number of the Nazi soldiers, who shot people they had stuffed into large pits — such as the massacre at Babi Yar — experienced severe psychological reactions and became combat ineffective. Even crazed fanatics can reach a limit where the guilt crushes their mind.

Sinwar’s death, instead of diminishing the violence in Gaza and throughout the region, is likely to ignite further escalation. Hezbollah and the Houthis, for example, are likely to step up the intensity and lethality of their attacks in the coming weeks. If Israel, blinded by hubris, decides to up the ante and attack Iran, Iran will strike back with a ferocity Israel has never experienced. If that happens, I think the region will be engulfed in a major war.

What makes the situation so dangerous is that the United States is paralyzed with politics and incapable of taking decisive actions to force Israel to sheath its sword. Biden’s weakness and mental incapacity means there is no adult in charge in Washington capable of making tough decisions to compel de-escalation. Just the opposite. Sending THAAD air-defense systems and US troops to Israel just adds more fuel to an already, unstable, combustible mixture. I hope I am wrong. But my churning gut tells me otherwise.

https://sonar21.com/killing-sinwar-will-not-end-the-war-in-gaza/