The Israeli story of killing Hamas leaders seeking a ceasefire
MEHDI HASAN
"Israeli leaders killed three birds with one stone," wrote Reuven Pedatzur, a military affairs analyst for the Israeli daily Haaretz"They killed the man who had the power to reach an agreement with Israel; they took revenge on someone who had caused quite a few Israeli casualties; and they signaled to Hamas that communications with it will only be carried out through military force."
Was Pedatzur referring to the Israeli assassination of senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, head of the group's political bureau, in Tehran early Wednesday?
No. Pedatzur died in a traffic accident in 2014. His quote from Haaretz, above, was in response to murder Israeli attack on another senior Hamas commander, Ahmed Jabari, in November 2012, which began the 2012 Gaza war.
Like my former colleague at The Intercept, Jon Schwarz, document in great detail last year, “Jabari had come to believe that it was in the Palestinians’ best interest for Hamas to negotiate a long-term truce” and had been in communication with respected Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin. “Just before the assassination, [Baskin] gave Jabari a draft proposal for such a truce to review and approve. The draft was agreed upon by Baskin and Hamas’ deputy foreign minister, and Baskin also said he had previously shown it to Ehud Barak, then the Israeli defense minister.”
Would Jabari have signed a «hudna», or long-term truce, between Hamas and Israel? We will never know.
Israel, in fact, has a long and cynical history of assassinating Hamas leaders who are in the midst of ceasefire negotiations or even proposing long-term truces with the Jewish state.
Remember Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the quadriplegic co-founder and spiritual leader of Hamas? He was murdered less than three months after propose a long-term truce with Israel “if a Palestinian state is established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
His successor, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, was murdered less than three months after making a similar truce offer to Israel.
There is also the murder Jabari's assassination in 2012 by the Netanyahu government, who, as mentioned, was reviewing a "long-term mutual ceasefire" agreement only "hours before he was assassinated," According to Baskin.
The parallels between 2012 and 2024, between the murders of Jabari and Haniyeh, are eerie.
"He was in line to die, he was neither an angel nor a just man of peace," said Baskin said of Jabari shortly after his killing, "but his killing also ended the possibility of a truce and the ability of Egyptian mediators to function."
The same could be said of Haniyeh. The mainstream Western media agree that the Hamas leader was – by Hamas standards – a “pragmatist”; a key figure in the ongoing negotiations to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and free Israeli hostages.
De Reuters:
“Despite his tough language in public, [Haniyeh] was seen by Arab diplomats and officials as relatively pragmatic compared to the more hardline voices inside Gaza, where Hamas’s military wing planned the October 7 attack. While telling the Israeli military that they would find themselves “drowning in the sands of Gaza,” he and his predecessor as Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, had traveled around the region for talks on a Qatari-brokered ceasefire deal with Israel that would include the exchange of hostages for Palestinians in Israeli jails, as well as more aid for Gaza.”
De Sky News:
“Haniyeh was the pragmatic face of Hamas. He was less harsh and militaristic than Yahya Sinwar, who is the head of Hamas inside Gaza and directs the battle. Haniyeh was the public face of Hamas diplomacy in Arab capitals. He led efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza.”
This was the person that Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right Israeli government chose to assassinate on Iranian soil on Wednesday.
Why?
Simply put, Netanyahu and his coalition of fascists and bigots do not want a deal to free the hostages. They prefer to continue the war, regardless of the cost to Gaza's civilians or their own citizens still held within the enclave. Despite the ridiculous claims of Joe Biden in the opposite direction, it is Netanyahu who has been the biggest obstacle to reach a deal to release Israeli hostages in Gaza. The former spokesman for the hostages' families says that Netanyahu rejected an agreement. Benny Gantz, former member of the Israeli war cabinet, says that Netanyahu blocking an agreement. Israeli defense officials dicen to Haaretz that "Netanyahu systematically frustrated negotiations to release the hostages."
There is nothing new here. Misquoting Winston Churchill, Israel has always preferred "war-war" to "jaw-gag." Israeli governments - especially those led by Netanyahu - have preferred to have Hamas as a permanent enemy - or as "asset", to quote current Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich - instead of trying to reach a permanent agreement with Hamas.
Just like wrote the late Israeli journalist Pedatzur, in his analysis of the disastrous 2012 Jabari assassination:
“Our decision-makers, including the defense minister and perhaps also Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were aware of Jabari’s role in promoting a permanent ceasefire agreement. … Therefore, the decision to kill Jabari demonstrates that our decision-makers decided that a ceasefire would not be desirable for Israel at this time, and that attacking Hamas would be preferable.”
Change the name “Jabari” to “Haniyeh” above, and those words could have been written today.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
