Just when it was thought that the situation in the Middle East could not get any more incendiary, the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has propelled regional tensions to a whole new level.
Haniyeh was killed in an airstrike Tuesday night in Tehran, the Iranian capital, where he was attending the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian. The assassination was likely carried out by – who else? – the State of Israel, although the Israeli government appears to have adopted a “no comment” policy for now.
An Israeli official, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, apparently could not contain his exuberance and turned to X to proclaim: “This is the right way to cleanse the world of this filth… Haniyeh’s death makes the world a little better.”
In his social media post, Eliyahu also vowed that there would be “no more imaginary peace/surrender deals,” and that “the iron hand that will strike is the one that will bring peace and some comfort and strengthen our ability to live in peace with those who desire peace.”
This is a common use of the word “peace” for people who fundamentally do not want peace. It is true that killing one of the main negotiators of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip is a good way to thwart any prospect of peace for the time being.
And what do you know? As Reuters noted in its obituary of Haniyeh, the man was “considered by many diplomats to be a moderate compared to the more radical members” of Hamas.
Regardless, Israel has long had a moderation to justify its manic behavior. In a recent Tel Aviv Tribune article titled “Why Is Israel Escalating Its Attacks as Gaza Ceasefire Negotiations Move Forward?”, journalist Justin Salhani looked at the intensification of Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip even as ceasefire negotiations move forward.
Salhani recalled a relevant precedent during the second intifada in 2002, during which the Fatah-allied Tanzim militia was supposed to “announce a unilateral ceasefire.” Then Israel dropped a one-ton bomb on the home of a Hamas leader in Gaza, and that was the end of the story.
Today, Israel has officially killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza in less than 10 months, though the actual death toll is believed to be astronomically higher. So much for the “ability to live in peace,” to use Eliyahu’s words.
Of course, if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lets the war end, he will have to live with a lot of things he doesn’t want to live with—like domestic opposition, corruption charges, and other things that aren’t fun. In May, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requested an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza—an eventuality that is clearly better avoided by simply continuing to commit more war crimes.
And just to make absolutely sure that there is no conceivable possibility of peace in the short term, Israel is doing its best to provoke its enemies into committing warlike acts that Israel itself can then use as an excuse to continue waging war.
Just yesterday, Israel struck a residential building in the Lebanese capital Beirut, killing a woman and two children and wounding 74 others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The target of the strike was a Hezbollah commander whom Israel accuses of orchestrating the July 27 rocket attack on the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan that killed at least 12 children.
Hezbollah, which usually claims responsibility for its actions, vehemently denied carrying out the Majdal Shams attack – which, it must be stressed, took place in territory illegally occupied by Israel. But hey, that was reason enough to bomb Beirut.
Haniyeh’s assassination on Iranian soil left Iran with no choice but to respond to Israel militarily, something it has already shown it is fully capable of doing. Following Israel’s deadly April attack on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus, Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel.
Of course, it was more of a show of force than an attempt to do harm. But by assassinating Haniyeh in Tehran, Israel is literally playing with fire.
In order to derail the prospects of a ceasefire and continue the massacres in Gaza, it therefore appears that Israel will find itself with a lot more regional blood on its hands.
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines a “rogue state” as “a nation considered very dangerous to other nations” – and there is no more rogue nation these days than the State of Israel.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
No Comment: return of air traffic to Syria