Death of a Moderate

If you read the Washington Post, you'd assume that Israel killed one of the good guys

If you read The Washington Post today, you learned that Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader assassinated in Iran less than 24 hours ago, “was considered one of Hamas’s more politically pragmatic leaders.” He was “one of the moderate figures within Hamas, compared to the other, hawkish leaders or personalities.” His assassination, according to Professor Jeroen Gunning of Kings College London, will “push back a cease-fire and a two-state solution” - an opinion echoed by researcher Erik Skare of the University of Oslo, who is afraid that the new leadership will, unlike Haniyeh, not be in favor of a Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel.

In short, Israel eliminated Hamas’ good guy, the militant who could also respect a peace process and an eventual accommodation with the Jewish state.

That is a horrible mischaracterization of Ismail Haniyeh - the thieving, billionaire butcher of Hamas who knew how to get credulous Westerners to eat out of his bloody hands. He spoke in the measured tones of a diplomat, but the words that he said were murderous and evil. The joy on his face as he bowed down in thanks to God after watching Hamas’ murderous rampage on October 7th on television is enough to make one’s blood run cold. Hamas murdered 1200 people that day, and would have killed thousands and millions more had they been given the opportunity. Ismail Haniyeh was an essential piece of the Hamas puzzle, and was directly responsible for countless deaths of Jews.

What about his acceptance of a two-state solution? Indeed, Ismail Haniyeh proposed a two-state solution - that is, a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza with Jerusalem as its capital, along with all Palestinian “refugees” allowed back into Israel - but one which would be perennially at war with Israel and would make no promises to live peacefully by its side. In fact, his “plan” included a refusal to recognize Israel, and an implicit promise that after several years, the now-extant Palestinian state would resume attacks in order to conquer the remainder of the Jewish state. He did not even hide his intentions; he said the quiet part out loud. In his own words, “We will continue the resistance against this enemy until we liberate our land, all our land.”

The Washington Post is far from unique. In their rush to vilify Israel, too many media outlets have mischaracterized Haniyeh as a moderating voice when, in fact, he was an integral part of Hamas, and was fully on board with that terrorist organization’s murderous, Jew-hating ideology. He was moderate compared to Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza, just as Hermann Goring was moderate compared to Joseph Goebbels. Goring was a more civilized face than Goebbels, but they both were integral parts of the evil Nazi regime; both would have been put to death by the Allies had they not killed themselves first.

Unlike Goring, Ismail Haniyeh did not escape. Someone out there made sure that Ismail Haniyeh received the punishment that he deserved.

(Image: The Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation)