It’s no longer news that Yahya Sinwar, the recently crowned Hamas overall leader is dead. It was only going to be a matter of time. The need for survival for the State of Israel has led them not only to build probably the world’s most sophisticated army, but also, may have pivoted them to the top of the pile to create the world’s most sophisticated spy agency led by the Mossad. When you are helmed in by enemies, your realities are different than those who sit in the UN, in the White House, or at No. 10 Downing.
How you respond to the killing of one of your citizens, whether with a sledgehammer or a bomb falling from the sky is informed by your peculiar realities.
In other words, no one should reasonably expect a proportional, “civilized” normal kind of response from Israel when they are hurt. It’s been a little over one year since Hamas, in a daring invasion into Israel, killed 1,200 Israelis in one night and took hundreds of hostages. Since then, thousands of Israeli citizens and soldiers have died. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have died. The suffering in Gaza which the world sees in real time puts Israel in bad light. Now that Yahya is gone, will Hamas choose a Mandela? Will Israel choose a man like De Klerk, or Ehud Barak who is also ready for peace?
These are the great questions of our time. They need great minds to answer them.
Michael Ovienmhada.
