Haniyeh, Ismail Hamas Hostage Negotiator
Updated 2024-08-25
2024-08-05 Bibi’s Mideast Solution: Unending War The remote-control bomb that Israeli agents detonated in Tehran last week killed a lot more than Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. It also killed any prospect for a cease-fire in the Gaza war for the foreseeable future, absent the cessation of U.S.-provided offensive weapons. At the same time, it also made the prospects of a wider war, directly involving Iran and possibly even the United States, more likely.
With Israel’s war on Gaza now extending into its 11th month, this is not something for which the Israeli public is clamoring—least of all a rain of missiles from Iran. But by choosing to kill Haniyeh in the Iranian capital where he was a guest at the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Israel all but invited Iranian retaliation and short-circuited the ability of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, on his first day in office, to pursue his promised course of at least some reconciliation with Western governments. By assassinating Haniyeh, Israel was also eliminating Hamas’s chief negotiator of a Gaza war cease-fire and hostage release. https://prospect.org/world/2024-08-05-netanyahu-regional-war-gaza-hezbollah/
2024-08-03 Ismail Haniyeh killing: Netanyahu’s only goal is to set the region on fire David Hearst, the editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, discusses the extent to which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has advanced in creating the conditions for a regional war involving the US, Israel, Iran and the resistance movements.
Hearst reflects on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s speech at the funeral of his deputy, Fuad Shukr, following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh. He notes the significant change in tone after Nasrallah declared that the conflict has entered a new phase due to these assassinations, warning that Israel faces the prospect of war on five simultaneous fronts.
Hearst argues that US President Joe Biden has lost control over Netanyahu and has even less ability to prevent or mitigate a regional conflict. He asserts that Netanyahu is dragging the region into a war that Israel cannot halt or win. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsiuDTEiZOM
2024-08-02 Bibi’s Death Wish In one 24-hour period, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the killing of a top Hezbollah leader in an air strike on Beirut, and the assassination of the lead Hamas peace negotiator, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. That’s one sure way of destroying the peace talks.
Of all the Hamas leadership, Haniyeh was reportedly the most in favor of making a deal with Israel that traded a hostage release for a cease-fire and staged regional settlement. Now, talk of a hostage deal is off the table, much less the regional entente that the Biden Administration has been promoting—humiliating President Biden yet again.
Since the assassination of Haniyeh took place at an Iranian guesthouse, the world now waits to see what sort of retaliation ensues. Last April, the Iranians rained down some 300 missiles on Israel, taking care to limit casualties. That attack was in retaliation for Israel’s last assassination, one that also violated diplomatic immunity—the strike on Iran’s Damascus consulate on April 1 that killed seven officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, including two senior commanders.
Hezbollah was not involved in that carefully limited Iranian retaliation. But this time, Israel is on the verge of a war with Hamas and Hezbollah at the same time. Netanyahu has managed to bring together sworn enemies of each other, Sunni Hamas and Shia Hezbollah. Unlike Hamas, Hezbollah is armed by Iran and capable of inflicting massive damage on Israel in a regional war. https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-08-02-netanyahu-israel-war-hezbollah-iran/
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