Just when it was thought that the situation in the Middle East could not get any more incendiary, the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh has elevated regional tensions to a whole new level of evil.
Haniyeh was killed in an attack on Tuesday night in Tehran, the capital of Iran, where he attended the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The murder is undoubtedly the work of – who else? – the State of Israel, although the Israeli government appears to have adopted a “no comment” policy at this time.
An Israeli official, Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu, apparently could not contain his exuberance and took the opportunity 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 swore that “there would be no more imaginary peace/surrender agreements” and that “the iron hand that will attack is the one that will bring peace and a little comfort and strengthen our ability to live in peace ”. peace with those who desire peace.”
The word “peace” is used a lot for people who fundamentally don’t want, well, peace. Admittedly, killing one of the main negotiators of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip is a good way to frustrate any prospect of peace for now.
And what do you know? As Reuters noted in its obituary for Haniyeh, the man was “seen by many diplomats as a moderate compared to the more radical members” of Hamas.
In any case, Israel’s modus operandi has long been to suppress any opportunities for so-called “moderation” in order to justify its own perennial maniacal behavior. In a recent Al Jazeera article titled “Why is Israel intensifying its attacks as ceasefire negotiations in Gaza progress?”, journalist Justin Salhani reflected on the intensification of Israel’s current genocidal attack on the Gaza Strip, even as ceasefire negotiations were progressing.
Salhani recalled a certain relevant precedent during the second Intifada in 2002, in which the Tanzim militia, an ally of Fatah, was “prepared to announce a unilateral ceasefire”. Then Israel dropped a one-ton bomb on the home of a Hamas leader in Gaza City, and that was that.
Now, Israel has officially killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza in less than 10 months, although the true death toll is assumed to be astronomically higher. Enough of the “ability to live in peace,” to borrow Eliyahu’s words.
Of course, if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allows the war to end, he will have to live with a lot of things he doesn’t want to live with – like internal opposition, accusations of corruption and other things that are not 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 best avoided by simply continuing to commit more war crimes.
And just to be absolutely certain that there is no conceivable possibility of peace in the short term, Israel is doing its best to provoke its enemies into committing bellicose acts that Israel itself can then use as an excuse to continue to wage war. war.
Just yesterday, Israel struck a residential building in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, killing a woman and two children and injuring 74, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. The target of the attack was a Hezbollah commander accused by Israel of masterminding the July 27 rocket attack on the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, which killed at least 12 children.
Hezbollah, which normally takes responsibility for its actions, vehemently denied carrying out the Majdal Shams attack – which, it is worth highlighting, took place in territory that is illegally occupied by Israel. But hey, it was a good enough reason to bomb Beirut.
However, Haniyeh’s assassination on Iranian territory gives Iran no choice but to respond to Israel in some military way, which it has already demonstrated it is more than capable of doing. Following April’s deadly Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus, Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel.
True, this was more a show of force than an attempt to cause harm. But by assassinating Haniyeh in Tehran, Israel is literally playing with fire.
To derail prospects for a ceasefire and continue the slaughter in Gaza, it appears that Israel will end up with a lot more regional blood on its hands.
The Cambridge English dictionary define a “rogue state” as in a “nation that is considered too dangerous to other nations” – and there is no more dishonest nation today than the state of Israel.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
