Eliminating Israel’s opponents will not end resistance, only negotiations can bring peace

It is amazing how one man's determination to remain in office has led to conflict and soaring tensions in this region. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been waging simultaneous wars in Gaza and Lebanon and repression in the occupied West Bank for 11-plus months and has ordered strikes on Syria and Yemen and assassinations in Tehran and Beirut. The war in Gaza has cost more than 41,500 lives and the crackdown in the West Bank 700. In Israel's attacks elsewhere hundreds of people have been killed.

Netanyahu is dedicated to "forever wars" to evade blame for failing to anticipate and pre-empt the October 7th, 2023, raid into Israel by Hamas fighters who killed 1,139 and abducted 250, and for the failure of the Israeli army to wipe out Hamas in Gaza and Hizbollah in Lebanon since then. His wars have enabled him to postpone his testimony in his protracted corruption trial; if he is found guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison. Netanyahu prefers to be a war criminal rather than a common felon. As a war criminal he is likely to escape prosecution, trial and conviction since the International Criminal Court avoids taking on Israelis and Western and allied leaders who protect Israelis.

While Netanyahu has personal reasons for choosing war, he is simply following the route adopted by his predecessors. Founder of the ruling Likud Party and pre-state terrorist Menachem Begin mapped this route when he stated. “We fight therefore we are.” Israel has fought wars in 1948-1949, 1956, and 1967 in Palestine; 1978-2000, 1982, and 2006 in Lebanon; from 2008 through 2024 in Gaza, 2002 in the West Bank and waged irregular warfare throughout.

Last week's mass weaponisation of pagers and walkie-talkies, which killed at least 38 and wounded 3,100 in Lebanon, could very well rebound against Israel and Netanyahu who authorised the installation of explosives in the common communication devices. Their use and wide indiscriminate deployment could constitute a fresh war crime added to the multiple breaches of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention committed by Israel under Netanyahu.

Israel's employment of exploding pagers in Lebanon could lead to the devices rejection by innocent civilian doctors, nurses and other professionals on constant call, complicating their already stressed lives. Phones and mobile phones have been used by Israel on previous occasions. In 1972, Israel slew the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) representative in Paris Mahmoud Hamshari by putting explosives in his phone and detonating the instrument when he answered. In 1996, Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash was killed by explosives planted by Israel in a mobile phone. This case has led Israel's antagonists to avoid mobiles.

Assassination has always been a tool employed by the Zionists and Israel to eliminate men regarded as adversaries. The first to be killed was British soldier, politician and regional minister Lord Moyne who was shot dead by the underground extremist Lehi (known as the Stern Gang) in Cairo in 1944. It is difficult to see why Moyne was targeted as he approved partition of Palestine and a Jewish state while cabinet ministers opposed both at that time. Stern Gang head Yitzak Shamir served two terms as Israeli prime minister : 1983–1984, 1986–1992.

In 1946, the Irgun paramilitary outfit headed by Menachem Begin bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 and injuring 46. The main motive of the bombing was to destroy documents incriminating the Jewish Agency in attacks against the British during the mandate. Begin also was prime minister from 1977-83.

The second high profile victim was Count Folke Bernadotte. During World War II, he saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis. While serving as UN mediator in Palestine in 1948, he was slain by Lehi for castigating Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and seizure of West Jerusalem, which was meant to be administered internationally under the UN partition plan.

During 1956 Israel assassinated two Egyptian army officers aiding the Palestinian resistance. Mossad slew a West German rocket scientist who was working for Egypt, five Egyptian workers at a rocket factory, and a Latvian pilot who was involved in killing Jews during the World War. These operations took place in Germany, Egypt and Uruguay, providing Mossad with practice for the spate of assassinations that followed. I will mention a few key killings of notable figures among the hundreds Israel has slain, the majority for daring to resist Israel's occupation of Palestine.

On July 8th, 1972, Palestinian journalist, poet, and writer of short stories Ghassan Kanafani was killed in Beirut along with his young niece by a car bomb. He was a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and editor of its newspaper. Mossad followed up with an attempt with a parcel bomb which wounded PFLP activist Bassam Abu Sharif in Beirut.

On April 6th, 1973, Israeli commandos landed at Beirut's airport and in a well-planned operation drove from flat-to-flat slaying Fatah's Kamal Adwan, PLO official Mohammed Youssef Al Najjar and PLO spokesman Kamal Nasser. The leader of the Israeli force was Ehud Barak who served as prime minister from 1999-2001.

On April 16, 1988, leader of Fatah's military wing Abu Jihad (Khalil Wazir) was shot in Tunis. In February 1992, Israel slew Hizbollah chief Abbas al-Musawi along with his wife and toddler son with helicopter fired missiles. In 1997, Mossad attempted to kill Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal in Jordan. In August 2001, Israel murdered senior PFLP figure Abu Ali Mustafa who had been allowed by Israel to return to the West Bank city of Ramallah. On March 22, 2004, Hamas co-founder Shaikh Ahmad Yassin was killed by missiles fired from a helicopter. On April 17, 2004 Yassin’s successor Abdel Aziz Al Rantissi was slain in the same way. In 2008, Hizbollah's security chief Imad Mughniyeh was eliminated by a car bomb in Damascus. In January 2024, Hamas deputy political chief Saleh Al Arouri was killed by a drone strike in Beirut. On July 30, Hizbollah military strategist Fuad Shukr was killed by an Israeli strike on his flat in east Beirut and on the 31st Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a bomb in Tehran. Last Friday, Israel killed 10 Hizbollah military officers along with Ibrahim Aqil, who had assumed an important role in the civil/proxy war in Syria.

The lesson Israel should have learned over the decades is that eliminating Palestinians, Lebanese, critics and opponents does not end resistance to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Killing adversaries one by one cannot replace negotiations to end the forever war for Palestine.