The Israeli government assassinated the leader of Hamas’ political wing while he was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of the newly-elected Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian:
Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political wing, was killed in Iran, Hamas announced Wednesday, describing the death as an assassination. Hamas and Iran both blamed Israel and vowed to retaliate; the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it was Iran’s “duty” to avenge the killing, and Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned of “major repercussions” for the whole region.
Killing a top political leader of Hamas seems designed to scuttle any chance of a ceasefire in the near future, and doing this on Iranian soil seems all but guaranteed to provoke a strong reaction from the Iranian government and its proxies elsewhere in the region. Netanyahu couldn’t make it any clearer that he has no interest in ending the war in Gaza and that he welcomes a wider conflict. The Biden administration’s ongoing failure to rein in the Israeli government has allowed things to reach this point.
The region is on the edge of a knife, and the Israeli government has been trying for months to start a major conflagration. The assassination in Iran comes on the heels of an Israeli strike in Beirut this week and the attack on vital civilian infrastructure in Hodeidah in Yemen earlier this month. The Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus back in April led to a significant Iranian military response. The Iranian government is pledging to avenge the Haniyeh assassination, and there will be tremendous pressure from their own hardliners to inflict more damage than they did in the last reprisal.
The assassination will be an important test for the candidates in the election. It is safe to assume that Trump has no problem with a reckless and dangerous assassination that risks war with Iran because he ordered one himself four years ago, and his running mate has defended that terrible decision on more than one occasion. That leaves Harris. As Spencer Ackerman writes today, this is Harris’ opportunity to demonstrate that she will be different from Biden on these issues:
Harris is not a passive observer. She is the second most-senior elected official in the United States, and this is the situation she is looking to inherit. We know that Trump wants to let the Israelis “finish the job.” Is that also Harris’ position, with a sprinkling of rhetorical compassion for Palestinians acting as cover for policy continuity? Or will she demonstrate the leadership necessary to stop a coalescing, escalating regional war that the United States possesses the material leverage on Israel to end?
Read the rest of the article at Eunomia
Daniel Larison is a contributing editor for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.
"this is Harris’ opportunity to demonstrate that she will be different from Biden…"
"That ain't gonna happen." This is pure "hopium".
Thanks for the laugh Richard!
“Hopium!”
;-}
Purple Haze wearing a skirt.
Harris is married to Doug Emhoff, for Christ Sake!
Mamala is going to defend her brood. Vance said Kamala has no children, but she likely loves those kids.
It’s not a war in Gaza. It’s an extermination. This isn’t war. Similarly, if a man beats up a 4-yr old girl, that isn’t a “fight.”