Good Bloody Riddance

Today, the leader of Palestine (Gaza branch), Yahya Sinwar, has been eliminated by the heroic IDF soldiers. He died like a dog.

These are dramatic news, even more dramatic than the recent killing of Nassralah. Sinwar was the ‘mastermind’ behind the October 7th massacre. He is the man responsible for all the horrors that involved the murder, rape and kidnapping of more than 1,200 Israelis. These are great, celebration-worthy news.

This image of the courageous IDF soldiers surrounding that evil monster is perhaps the year's photo. Look how pathetic he looks. Good riddance, indeed.

The reason I am writing this post is not just to celebrate his death but to caution about the dangerous nature of certain elements in Israel in their response to his demise.

Upon watching the news unfold, immediately, even before receiving the official confirmation, all sorts of Israeli “experts” say that now it’s the time for a hostage deal. Ronen Tzur, who was the leader of the “Hostages and Missing Families Forum”, called for an “Emergency deal”. Dr Yuval Bitton, the man who had operated on Sinwar in 2008, which saved his life as he was dying from Brain cancer, said, “This is the image of victory. We have militarily defeated Hamas. Now it’s time for a diplomatic victory” hinting that now it’s time to reach a diplomatic agreement with the Palestinians to release the remaining hostages. Others have voiced the valid concern that we need to be wary of hostage executions now as acts of retribution by the Palestinians.

The remaining hostages are indeed in great danger, and it very well is the case that they may be facing imminent execution by their Palestinian captives. My heart goes to the concerned families. I can’t possibly imagine what they are going through right now, and I entirely understand why they would be focused on their loved ones’ safety.

I think this Israeli media's immediate focus on the endangered Israeli lives under Palestinian captivity following the news of the death of its worst recent enemy demonstrates how much Israeli society prioritizes life over death. Israeli society is indeed concentrated on freeing those in danger rather than being driven by a desire to destroy their enemy. I would say that there’s certainly a positive element in this basic life-saving orientation. However, I must say that there’s something dangerous in this perspective.

Life is about more than survival in the present moment. It’s about flourishing in the long term. It’s about achieving one’s values and goals over the course of a lifetime. Life is not only about a breathing, but about having careers, being creative, having relationships with other people, it’s about all these important things that comprise happiness.

When victory is equated with returning things to square one, back to October 6th, it’s a self-contradiction. If Israel were to cut a deal now, withdraw from Gaza, and release Palestinian murderers back to Gaza, Israel would be practically in the same place as it’s been before October 7th. The life of Sinwar is proof of how Israel has already been put in a worse position than it has previously been. After all, Sinwar was released in a hostage exchange deal, the infamous “Shalit Deal” of 2011, where Prime Minister Netanyahu signed an agreement with the Palestinians to release 1027 of their soldiers in exchange for a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

If not for that compromise, Sinwar couldn’t have led the Palestinians to the point of October 7th. All the hundreds of lives lost, and hostages kidnapped wouldn’t have happened.

Had Israeli soceity been focused on not only living but on the sustained human flourishing and happiness of its citizens, it would have rejected the idea of comprising with evil to go back to the dangerous ‘October 6th’ position, where Israel had a murderous enemy living right on its border. It would have argued for a positive vision for the future, where Israel’s many enemies would be defeated to the point of them being no longer hostile to the idea of having Israelis living next to them.

Indeed, Israel is close to reaching that goal militarily in Gaza, where it has taken control of much of it and destroyed much of the Palestinian state infrastructure that has manifested the October 7th massacre. Israel is on the path to victory and the defeat of the Palestinian anti-Semitic ideology; who could ‘now’ possibly be the right time to come to a diplomatic solution?

How could these ‘military’ experts propose that now, at the point of clear military momentum, it’s time to reach a diplomatic resolution to the war? It’s obscene. In the battle of Berlin in April of 1945, right after Hitler’s suicide, did the Allies ask for a hostage deal with the Germans, or did they ask for an unconditional surrender? Indeed, they were proved correct, and Germany had wholly changed its course and stopped being a threat to humanity.

How could Israelis, following all the horrors that the Palestinians have perpetrated on them, ask their own country to demand anything but an unconditional surrender? It’s baffling.

No, now it’s not the time for a deal, ceasefire, or any diplomatic solution of any kind. Now is the time to push for either an unconditional surrender of the Palestinians or a continuation of the war in full force until they surrender. That’s the only moral way to wage a war; that’s the only way to secure a sustained peace and a safe future for the next generation of Israeli kids so that they will never have to fear being kidnapped or killed from their own homes ever again.

The number one lesson from Sinwar’s incredibly destructive life is that compromising with evil only fuels it; it only leads to more deaths and more compromises. It’s a vicious cycle that shouldn’t ever allowed to happen. Those who promote comprising of today are unfortunately leading us to the compromises of the future, which are sure to be much worse than those of the present.

No deal, no compromise, only unconditional surrender, only total victory.

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