The assassinations of Fuad Shukr and Ismail Haniyeh proved that the enemies of freedom everywhere must be confronted and defeated.
(JNS) Truth is always revitalizing, even if it can pose serious dangers to those who speak and embrace it. Each of us has experienced this.
Over the past few days, with two extraordinary assassinations of top terrorist leaders, Israel has recovered two truths forgotten over 300 days of war.
First, the truth that Mossad and the IDF’s legendary ability to succeed under impossible conditions not only exists but may be stronger than ever. Second, that the geographical scope of the war, previously confined to Gaza and northern Israel, has now expanded to where it ought to have been all along.
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, Israel is fighting on several fronts but against one enemy: Iran.
Thus, the absurdly titled “Supreme Leader” of Iran’s Islamist regime, Ali Khamenei, declared that he would “punish Israel” for killing Hamas kingpin Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. He sputtered, “The Zionist, criminal and terrorist regime martyred our dear guest in our house and tormented us.”
That dear guest, of course, was a war criminal numerous times over, and Iran’s “house” was a refuge for a monstrous terrorist. Khamenei knows this but he lies anyway, because that’s what he does.
The truth is that Israel’s assassination of Haniyeh sent a clear message: Israel can go anywhere, anytime; even into the terrorist lairs “protected” by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
This had already been proven a short time before, this time in Beirut, where another terror leader, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, saw his no. 2 man, Fuad Shukr, obliterated in an Israeli strike. Shukr’s execution was not just a boon to Israel, it was a gift to the world. Nasrallah’s no. 2 did not just kill Israelis; he also masterminded the slaughter of 241 American marines in 1983.
In Beirut as well, Shukr was heavily protected. He ought to have been safe, at least in the minds of the terror kings, but he was not. Now, Nasrallah must know, no terrorist is safe, including himself. After all, Hezbollah too ultimately relies on Iran, and Israel has proved that Iran cannot protect its terrorists.
Shukr earned his death many times over.
Israeli TV recently interviewed Efrat Abraham, whose brother Benny was kidnapped along Israel’s northern border with two other soldiers. Hezbollah did not hand over their bodies until four years later; and only, of course, in exchange for a multitude of its terrorists held in Israeli jails. It was Shukr who recently sent the missile that slaughtered 12 Druze children in Majdal Shams.
By executing the slaughterer, Israel did not just avenge the dead, it also fulfilled its greatest obligation: to defend its citizens.
Haniyeh was no less monstrous than Shukr. He lived as a fantastically wealthy man, fat on the money he stole from his own people, messianically obsessed with killing Jews as he moved with impunity from Doha to Cairo, Tehran and Moscow, always in touch with his accomplice Yahya Sinwar—another mastermind of Oct. 7.
It seems that Haniyeh’s successor as Hamas’s chief terrorist will be Khaled Mashaal, another bloated plutocrat living far from Gaza. This is the great legacy of Hamas: Murder, robbery and atrocity.
Now, even as Iran prepares its “response” to finally being held accountable for its crimes against humanity, Israel declares that it does not want war and is prepared to resume hostage negotiations. Perhaps Sinwar, deep in his bunker, might think twice this time. Perhaps he now knows that he is next and, just maybe, he will value his fetid life more than he values war and finally surrender and hand over the hostages.
Even if he does not, he has surely learned something: Israel has emerged from the nightmare of Oct. 7 with a precious truth in its hands—a democratic nation must face up to the aggression of all those around the world who hate and want to annihilate freedom. The war against tyranny is always a total war, and with its actions this week Israel has made it very clear that it understands this.