CrossFireArabia
A Foreign Policy magazine report confirmed that Israel’s killing of the head of the Hamas political bureau, Yahya Sinwar, will only make the movement more fierce. It added while it may seem like a great achievement today, with time, others will rise in his place – as is always the case – and the resistance will continue.
Middle East affairs specialist Stephen Cook, a columnist for the magazine, said that history shows that “it is impossible to eliminate a resistance movement” by killing its members, and the martyrdom of their leaders will not deter “those who support the cause”, but will lead them to redouble their efforts to achieve their goals.
The writer pointed out that resistance is not a “sterile” project, but rather “an essential part of the identity of those who belong to it,” and for this very reason Sinwar did not want to die a natural death but rather to be martyred by a tank shell on the battlefield, believing that this would strengthen the resistance.
The writer warned the Israelis not to be distracted by celebrating and distributing sweets from reality, and addressed them, asking: “Do you remember the most prominent founders of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, or the Palestinian leader Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad)? What about the former Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Abbas al-Moussawi, or the founder of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Fathi Shaqaqi? They were monsters to Israel in the past, and it was able to assassinate them all, but the resistance continued.”
He added: “As skilled as the Israelis are in avenging the blood of their dead, they have never succeeded in putting a real end to the resistance over the past decades, so what makes them think that killing Sinwar will lead to a different result this time?”
In the writer’s opinion, Israel’s killing of Sinwar will not break Hamas, but will ignite anger and a desire for revenge in the hearts of its members, just as the assassination of its founder, Hassan al-Banna, in 1949 did not weaken the Muslim Brotherhood.
Cook believes that Israel’s failed strategy of eliminating movements by targeting their leaders is similar to the mentality of the United States after the 11 September attacks. Although the US forces killed the founder of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and his successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the organization survived, as did the Islamic State after the killing of its founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and these organizations still pose a threat to the United States to this day according to JO24.
