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Commentary
Wall Street Journal

Israel Brings Deterrence Back to the War on Terror

Hezbollah and Iran may feel constrained to limit their responses to the Jewish state’s strikes.

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
A banner featuring a portrait of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is being hung next to an Iranian flag during a funeral for him and his bodyguard Abu Shaaban in Tehran, Iran, on August 1, 2024. Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard, Abu Shaaban, are being killed in an air strike on Haniyeh's residence in northern Tehran the day after the inauguration ceremony of Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Caption
A banner featuring Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh hangs next to an Iranian flag during his funeral in Tehran, Iran, on August 1, 2024. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Coming on the heels of strikes that killed Hamas military commander in Khan Younis and Hezbollah military commander in Beirut, the assassination in Tehran of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, sent clear messages to Hezbollah, Hamas and, most important, Iran. Haniyeh was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president, who was elected last month following his predecessor’s death in a May helicopter crash. Iran’s failure to protect a high-level guest at a state event suggests to the world that its security services are deeply penetrated by Israel. This is a devastating demonstration of incompetence for a regime that depends on terror to survive.

In some quarters, Haniyeh is being eulogized as a moderate and Israel’s attack on him condemned as prolonging the war. This is not quite as nonsensical as it sounds. There were hopes in Qatar, Gaza, Turkey and Iran that the U.S. could be bamboozled into supporting a cease-fire leading to a “moderate” Hamas government in a unified West Bank-Gaza Palestinian protostate under Haniyeh’s leadership.

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