The Dark Side of Israel
Since World War Two, Israel has probably assassinated more people than any other country in the Western world — and there is nothing wrong with that.
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After Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated this week while visiting Iran for the country’s inauguration of its new president, initial reports suggested that a missile was fired from another country into the building where Haniyeh was staying.
Knowing Israel, that would have been too simple of an operation.
Now, it is being reported that the explosion which killed Haniyeh and his bodyguard early Wednesday was set off by a sophisticated, remote-controlled bomb smuggled into the Hamas leader’s room at the Tehran guesthouse.1
On the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, at 01:14 Israel time — which is 01:44 Tehran time — the signal was given. A few seconds later, the bomb exploded in Haniyeh’s room in the official and well-protected residence of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The compound, called Neshat, is in an affluent north Tehran neighborhood and used for retreats, secret meetings, and “housing prominent guests” such as Haniyeh.
His room, which is reserved for important and especially privileged guests, was liked by Haniyeh and was used in all his visits to the country, and also in this one — where he arrived on Monday for the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president the next day.
During the ceremony and after it, on Tuesday until the evening, Haniyeh was photographed hundreds of times. In fact, he was probably one of the most photographed at this event, due to the timing and international coverage of 86 delegations arriving in the hours before his assassination.
The way the bomb was buried, the angle and where Haniyeh was in the room, the event could only end in one way. He had no chance of coming out of the incident just seriously injured.
Middle Eastern officials said the bomb was planted there roughly two months ago, and that the blast’s precision required months of planning, extensive surveillance, and even artificial intelligence. It was detonated remotely by Mossad operatives who were on Iranian soil after receiving intelligence that Haniyeh was indeed in the room.
According to three Iranian officials, the assassination is a “tremendous embarrassment” for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which runs the guesthouse where Haniyeh and other dignitaries were staying.
The precision of the hit was reminiscent of the remote-operated machine gun that a Mossad team used to kill top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020. There was also Stuxnet, a malicious computer bug developed by the Israelis and Americans that caused substantial damage to Iran’s nuclear program.
And since the Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah war broke out on October 7th, Israel has already assassinated the top military commanders of both Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as several of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps upper brass, including two generals (one of whom was considered an “architect” of the Hamas-led massacres in Israel on October 7th).
In 2018, Ronen Bergman (one of Israel’s leading investigative journalists) wrote a book titled, “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations.” In it he traces Jewish-Israeli use of selective killings from pre-statehood to the present.
In British Mandate Palestine, Jewish underground organizations, notably one known as the Stern Gang, often assassinated British personnel. And, in post-Second World War Europe, “The Avengers” (a group of Jewish assassins) targeted former Nazis in Europe and murdered them, often by strangulation.
According to Bergman, Israeli covert agencies (including the Mossad, the Shin Bet, and units in the IDF) have undertaken targeted assassinations against “Arab adversaries throughout its pre- and post-statehood periods,” carrying out “at least” 2,700 assassination operations in the 70-year period since Israel’s state formation in 1948.2
“Poisoned toothpaste that takes a month to end its target’s life, armed drones, exploding mobile phones, spare tires with remote-controlled bombs, assassinating enemy scientists, and discovering the secret lovers of Muslim clerics,” are among the methods described in the book used by Israel to carry out assassinations.
In the 1950s, Israel’s Mossad dispatched envelopes containing explosives to kill German scientists building rockets for Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt. Later, in September 1972, after the Palestinian terrorist group Black September took 11 Israeli Olympic team members hostage and killed them in Munich, the Mossad embarked on a campaign of assassinations of those linked to the killing of the athletes.
The book also strongly implies that Israel assassinated longtime Palestinian leader (and colossal terrorist) Yasser Arafat, although Bergman stated that Israel’s military censorship prohibits him from even stating whether he knows that for a fact or not.
Since World War Two, Israel has probably assassinated more people than any other country in the Western world. Executing these individuals identified as direct threats to Israel’s national security, as Bergman put it, sends a clear message that, “if you are an enemy of Israel, we will find you.”
Many Jews, especially in the Diaspora, are uncomfortable with this side of Israel. For them, their Zionist identity is intertwined with values of justice, morality, and the historical experience of persecution. The idea of the Jewish state engaging in extrajudicial killings — no less in foreign countries — clashes with these values and raises difficult ethical questions.
Furthermore, these actions can create a disconnect between Israel and its global supporters, particularly in liberal and “progressive” Jewish communities, where there is often a strong emphasis on human rights. The tension between supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and grappling with the moral implications of its methods can lead to a sense of unease, and in some cases, an (overly) critical evaluation of Israel’s policies.
And yet, Israel has no choice. What many of these Jews do not understand is that this is very much a life and death proposition for Israel and Israelis (including non-Jewish Israelis).
We can argue whether it was a good idea for the Jews to achieve statehood in our indigenous homeland — and, at the same time — within one of the most volatile, undemocratic, and illiberal regions of the world, but I and many other Israelis have no interest in time-machine hypotheticals.
The reality is what it is: Israel exists, it is justifiably powerful, and it has enemies who continue to openly vow for its complete destruction. Diplomacy, peace and love, and Kumbaya are simply irrelevant here, regardless of how unfortunate it is to acknowledge this.
Dr. Tal Becker defended Israel against the ridiculous accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice in January. Recently, while speaking at an event, he put it perfectly: “Jews having power may be one of the most just outcomes in our history.” And grounded as he is in his commitment to morality, Becker added that “power is not a vice.”3
Eylon Levy, host of the “Israel: State of a Nation” podcast, declared it more candidly:
“Imagine if we’d got Eichmann in 1940. That’s the difference between Jewish history and the Jewish present.”4
If you can comprehend just how much individual and collective trauma Israelis have from boundless, nonstop Palestinian terrorism — plus the warmongering of neighboring countries — you can begin to understand why Israelis are so unapologetic about how they decide to defend themselves and their country.
For many decades, the Israeli doctrine of defense was clear and obvious for all to know: Israel exacts far more harm than it absorbs. Or as I explain it to people: You come for one of our eyes, we come for your entire head.
But now, since October 7th, this doctrine has been updated to: We can no longer tolerate on our borders Iranian terrorist proxies sponsored by an “Islamic Republic” that incessantly professes the Jewish state’s annihilation. Indeed, no other country, including the one you are reading this from, would accept even a semblance of this reality if they were in Israel’s shoes.
Hence Israel’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.
Or as one pro-Israel satirical social media account illustrated it:
“Stop killing Jews and we’ll stop killing the people who kill Jews.”5
“Bomb Smuggled Into Tehran Guesthouse Months Ago Killed Hamas Leader.” The New York Times.
Bergman, Ronen. “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations.” Random House, 2018.
Rosenblatt, Gary. “‘Jews having power may be one of the most just outcomes in our history.’” Future of Jewish.
Eylon Levy on X
The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome on X
As a Jew in the Diaspora, who has absolutely no issue with the targeted assassinations, few things infuriate me more than “liberal” American Jews judging and condemning Israel from the safety of their homes or restaurants, theaters or shopping malls in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, where they don’t have to worry about being killed by a rocket or suicide bomber, being knifed while waiting in line at the bank or walking down the street, or being car-rammed waiting for a bus or an Uber.
I think it's a good thing to get the main culprits, instead of innocent young men who are drafted into the armed forces, often against their will. How much better it would have been to take out Hitler, before millions of young men and women on both sides, as well as countless civilians, were killed in World War 2.