‘Religious War’ Emerges as a Red Line for Israel, as It Mulls Action Against a Terror Master

Israel is blaming a Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, for masterminding the current deadly terror wave, as well as the unrest in Jerusalem. Current and former officials are calling for the terror master’s assassination. Thousands of mourners attended the funerals of three men who were laid to rest today at an Orthodox community, Elad, at the center of Israel. The men were killed Thursday night alongside four others who were injured in an attack by two ax-wielding Arab terrorists.The attack was especially poignant for Israelis, as it occurred at the conclusion of the country’s 74th Independence Day celebration. The brutality of the killings is a horrifying feature of an ongoing terror spree that started in March and has seen the murder of 19 Israelis.For many in Israel, the Indepedence Day attack was over the top. Calls are growing across the country to “do something” to address terrorism — ultimately threatening the stability of Jerusalem’s coalition government headed by Prime Minister Bennett. Composed of Mr. Bennett’s right wing party, Yamina, as well as center- and far-left parties and even an Islamist Arab party, headed by Mansour Abbas, the coalition is fragile even in passages of peace. Inability to respond to growing security threats might well break it. One option for addressing the terror wave would be a major ground attack on Gaza, Hamas’s home base. An incursion there would likely ignite an all-out war — including missile attacks on Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities, many more deaths, and an economic setback at least in the short term.It would also likely undo the ruling coalition.As America has discovered, one alternative — killing terror leaders — can at times be quite effective. Al Qaeda suffered a major blow after Osama bin Laden was killed, as did ISIS with the demise of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. Iran’s Quds force was weakened after its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief, Qassem Soleimani, was killed. In Israel, which has long employed the tactic of killing terror masterminds in its wars, calls to act against Sinwar are now growing. That’s in part because Hamas took responsibility for the Elad attack and, as after past terror operations, Gazans celebrated the ax murders by passing out candy on the streets. According to a report on Israel’s Channel 12 television, Jerusalem officials relayed a message today to Hamas through intermediaries that they consider Sinwar a terror “instigator,” and that they plan to respond “in kind.” Sinwar took command of Hamas in Gaza in 2017. His incendiary speeches have always been seen as dangerous by Israeli officials. In the leadup to this year’s Ramadan, which started in April, he called on Arabs at the West Bank and inside Israel to confront what he termed as Israeli “assaults” on Jerusalem’s holy mosques. He also urged leaders across the Arab and Muslim world to defend the Al Aqsa mosque from the Jews. As violence marked the entire holy month, Jordan, Egypt, and other Arab countries at peace with Israel denounced Jerusalem in ever harsher language, even as Israel’s police attempted to keep calm on the Temple Mount. Sinwar did not end his incendiary speeches even after Ramadan concluded last week.“We must prepare for a big war if Israel does not stop harming the Al Aqsa mosque,” he said earlier this week, concluding a speech with a call to arms. “Let everyone who has a rifle prepare his rifle,” he said, “and whoever does not have a gun, let him prepare his machete, ax, or a knife.”Thursday’s ax attack at Elad looked like a direct response to that speech. “Israel must eliminate Yahya Sinwar,” a former commander of the Israeli army’s Gaza division, Major General Israel Ziv, said in a radio interview. The Hamas chieftain, he said, “gave the order and should take responsibility” for the Elad murders. Sinwar “and his Hamas partners have decided, even before Ramadan, to ignite a religious holy war that would sweep the masses,” a veteran military analyst, Ron Ben Yishai, writes today. The idea, he wrote, is to heighten religious feeling “not only in the Palestinian territories, but also inside Israel, in Lebanon and Syria, and even in further away places like Egypt and Turkey.”Unlike in the past, Mr. Ben Yishai adds, Hamas is now aware of the fragility of the Israeli coalition government. Sinwar assumes Jerusalem will therefore refrain from attacking Gaza, which would allow him to safely catalyze a war that would endanger Israel’s relations with Mideast allies. “We need to remove Sinwar and his lieutenants from the scene, not as a revenge, but to deter those who would follow him” as Hamas leaders, Mr. Ben Yishai writes, adding that Israel must make clear that as far as it is concerned “a religious war is a red line.”

‘Religious War’ Emerges as a Red Line for Israel, as It Mulls Action Against a Terror Master

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