Two for two last night
As I saw the news over the last 24 hours that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah and Hezbollah’s #2, Fa’ad Shakar had both been assassinated, I couldn’t help but smile and think that this was good and that they both deserved that.
After all, Haniyah for sure was instrumental in the planning of the October 7th massacre of over 1,200 of our citizens and continued pushing the leadership in Gaza to continue the war with Israel. This, of course, while he was flying around the region from his plush home base in Qatar and participating in negotiations for the release of the hostages Hamas is still holding for 299 days (about 120 at this writing,…..who knows if they are dead or alive?).
His decision to go to Tehran and prance around publicly knowing that there was an Israeli price on his head, made him a great target. Killing him in Tehran was also a good warning to the Iranians that whoever was responsible for the killing is able to do this inside Iran. While all of us here believe it was an Israeli missile that took him out (Iran stated it was a weapon fired from a long distance from Tehran), Israel has not claimed credit for the assassination. But who else could it have been eh?
As for Shakar, he has been Hizballah’s chief military strategist for some time and we believe he was the mastermind behind the attack on the Druze soccer field last Saturday that killed 12 Israeli children and injured dozens of others who were simply having a good time.
He was also responsible for the October, 1982 bombing of the US military installation in Beirut which killed 220 US troops and for which America had offered a $5 million reward for his apprehension. Many members of the US Congress today expressed their appreciation that Israel had found Shakar and killed him, as we did claim responsibility for this one. I wonder if we can send the US Department of Defense an invoice for the $5m bounty payment? Hmm.
However, we are cautioned not to gloat over the deaths of others, even if they are our enemies. When our ancestors crossed the Reed Sea during the exodus from Egypt, they began to rejoice when they saw the waters recede and drown the Egyptians who were pursuing them. At that point a voice called out from heaven and said that the Egyptians were also God’s children and it would be inappropriate to gloat. To this day, during the intermediate days of the Passover holiday when singing Hallel, the traditional order of six psalms in praise of God, two of them are omitted so that our joy at being saved is muted somewhat in recognition of the deaths suffered by our enemies.
Frankly, not sure that either Shakar or Haniyah deserve such concern as they certainly have a lot of our blood and that of others as well on their hands. Nevertheless, suffice it to say that they got what they deserved and that the world will be a better place without them.
Now we wait and see what the response, if any, will be from Hizballah and/or Hamas, both of whom take their marching orders from Iran, of course.
But we don’t hear any calls from the nations of the world directed at any of their leaders to practice restraint, as we heard directed at us after Saturday afternoon’s killing of our young people. Do you ever wonder why?
Well, Chris Como, in his syndicated television show, earlier this week explored the conundrum of why when it comes to Israel and our enemies, it is always us asked to practice restraint. Cuomo has a really good analysis of this issue and you can find it here.
It is worth the 7-1/2 minutes it will take to watch it. He doesn’t solve the problem, nobody can. However, the analysis is interesting and the warning that the double standard may start with us but it will eventually consume everyone is instructive. Hope you find it of interest.