op-ed: Israeli Assassinations: Between threats to Al-Arouri.. and assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa

Assassinations are considered an essential axis in the Zionist mentality and are not necessarily linked to the momentary reality of the entity, as some Palestinian politicians are trying to justify and externalize the raging threats today to assassinate the Hamas leader, Saleh Al-Arouri, that they are due to the state of erosion of deterrence in the entity on the one hand, and the rise of armed resistance in the West Bank on the one hand. another side . In view of the rich history of Israeli assassinations, which exceeded 100 since the occupation of 67, against Palestinian leaders, we find that it is an essential part of the bloody revenge mentality.

The assassinations began early, we mention the most prominent of them Ghassan Kanafani in 1972, Al-Najjar and Al-Kamaleen Adwan and Nasser in 1973, Basil Al-Kubaisi, Ali Salameh in Lebanon, Zuhair Mohsen in Paris, Bassem Sultan in Cyprus, Khaled Nazzal in Athens, Khalil Al-Wazir in Tunisia, Fathi Shikaki in Malta, Samir Kuntar in Damascus. During the second intifada, most of the leaders of the first ranks of Hamas were liquidated. Yahya Ayyash, Salah Shehadeh, Ismail Abu Shanab, Al-Rantisi, until it affected Sheikh Al-Qaid Ahmed Yassin who had just left the dawn prayer. In Kuala Lumpur, but in the past few years, the hand of assassination has concentrated in the ranks of the Islamic Jihad.

The resistance, old and new, does not care about hostile threats or assassinations. Rather, it sees that targeting it distinguishes and strengthens it among the Palestinian and Arab masses alike, and earns it respect that reaches the level of spiritual and moral sanctification on the one hand, and the provision of material “financial” benefits. And in kind, public or secret, and the case of the Tunisian aviation engineer Mohamed Zouari, who was assassinated in Sfax, is only a small example of that. But the issue of Qassem Soleimani is another topic, as it was adopted by Ismail Haniyeh, the “martyr of Jerusalem,” and Abbas Zaki Guevara, the Middle East.

As for the counter-threats by all the factions, in response to the assassination of Al-Arouri or any other Palestinian leader, it has not yet risen until a specific Israeli leader is chosen and assassinated, and Israel will not hesitate to assassinate Al-Arouri if it is confirmed that he was involved in the Hebron operation and before it. Hawara operation, it came to Netanyahu to threaten Iran if it is proven that it is behind such operations, financing and arming. But Netanyahu will not dare to assassinate Al-Arouri in Lebanon after Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel of the consequences of doing so on his land.

Today, the threats to assassinate Al-Arouri coincide with the twenty-second anniversary of the assassination of the Secretary-General of the Popular Front, Abu Ali Mustafa, and perhaps he is the only Palestinian leader whose assassination was responded to by the assassination of an Israeli leader with the rank of minister, less than two months after the bombing of his office in Ramallah, and the only one after whom the military wing of the Front was named, after Izz al-Din al-Qassam, who was martyred before the start of the contemporary Palestinian revolution.