Sinwar and Peace
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 massacre and a man who lived up to both syllables in his last name, has been killed. This is breaking news, but it doesn’t appear that Sinwar was specifically targeted in the raid that killed him. Let’s hope the death of this maniac will lead to a hostage deal, a ceasefire, and move toward peace in the region. One US official summed up what we know about how things will play out in the coming days and weeks. “We don’t know what this means yet,’ said a US official, there could be ‘rapid’ movement towards a ceasefire and hostage deal or there could still be a long path ahead.'” It’s the Middle East. That’s the only answer anyone could possibly give. Meanwhile, from Biden: “I will be speaking soon with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them, to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all, which has caused so much devastation to innocent people … There is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Yahya Sinwar was an insurmountable obstacle to achieving all of those goals. That obstacle no longer exists.” Here’s the latest from CNN.
+ There’s some irony that Sinwar was identified by his dental records. An Israeli dentist once save Sinwar’s life.”This is how Dr. Yuval Bitton remembers the morning of Oct. 7. Being jolted awake just after sunrise by the insistent ringing of his phone. The frantic voice of his daughter, who was traveling abroad, asking, ‘Dad, what’s happened in Israel? Turn on the TV.’ … Even in that first moment, Dr. Bitton says, he knew with certainty who had masterminded the attack: Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza and Inmate No. 7333335 in the Israeli prison system from 1989 until his release in a prisoner swap in 2011. But that was not all. Dr. Bitton had a history with Yahya Sinwar. As he watched the images of terror and death flicker across his screen, he was tormented by a decision he had made nearly two decades before — how, working in a prison infirmary, he had come to the aid of a mysteriously and desperately ill Mr. Sinwar, and how afterward the Hamas leader had told him that ‘he owed me his life.'” In the NYT (Gift Article) Jo Becker and Adam Sella piece together one (of a million) defining moments in this endlessly painful saga; history’s open wound that infects the world and never seems to heal. The Hamas Chief and the Israeli Who Saved His Life.
+ In an interview in Haaretz, Dr. Bitton explained what Sinwar was after: “He sees himself as playing a central role in the realization of the Islamist ambitions of the Muslim Brotherhood. He thinks he has entered the annals of history. And he really doesn’t care if 200,000 people are killed and not a single house remains complete in Gaza. The main thing is the goal, the greater idea.”
+ David Remnick in The New Yorker a couple months ago. Notes from Underground: The life of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza.
+ Meanwhile, a reminder that this is a much broader battle than it sometimes seems. US B-2 bombers strike Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. “It marked the first time the US has used the strategic stealth bomber to attack the Houthis in Yemen since the beginning of the US campaign. The B-2 is a much larger platform than the fighter jets that have been used so far to target Houthi facilities and weapons, capable of carrying a far heavier load of bombs.”
