If history tells us anything, it's that Israel isn't afraid to neutralize its sworn enemies regardless of where they're located. This is especially true if an individual is an architect of a terrorist attack that kills Israelis. The Jan. 2 assassination of Hamas deputy political chief Saleh Arouri in Lebanon, purportedly by an Israeli drone, is therefore not a surprise. It was expected and for many in the Israeli national security establishment long overdue. Even Arouri himself expected to die, commenting two months before Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that he was "living on borrowed time."
Assuming Israel is responsible for Arouri's killing, it wouldn't be the first time the country utilized its extensive counterterrorism apparatus to take out a target. The examples are too long to count. The most infamous Israeli operation, codenamed Operation Wrath of God, was a 20-year campaign that tracked and killed members of Black September, an affiliate of the Palestine Liberation Organization, after they murdered 10 Israeli athletes and a local officer during the 1972 Olympic Games. That operation took Israeli intelligence officers to multiple countries, including those outside the Middle East.
In October 1985, Israeli aircraft conducted a long-range strike operation against then-Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chief Yasser Arafat's compound in Tunisia after Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis in Cyprus days earlier. While Arafat wasn't killed in the bombing, the strike sent a message to PLO leadership that any attacks on Israelis, wherever they occurred, would be met with fast retaliation. Twenty-five years later, a senior Hamas official, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, met his death in a Dubai hotel room by an Israeli hit squad donning disguises.
This week's assassination of Arouri, however, comes at a time when Israel is on a war-footing. Tens of thousands of Israeli troops continue to prosecute the war against Hamas in Gaza, which the Israel Defense Forces' spokesperson stated will be ongoing throughout 2024. Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese terrorist organization, have been targeting one another's positions for nearly three months near the small towns and villages close to the Israel-Lebanon border. Israel is also striking militant positions in Syria, and last week killed a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general near Damascus, prompting Iranian leaders to issue a threat of retaliation. Arouri's killing in the southern suburbs of Beirut only adds to a sense of impending doom for regional leaders who are pressing for the war in Gaza to end, not expand.
Despite that risk, Saleh Arouri was too tempting a target for Israel to pass up. He wasn't simply a mouthpiece but had operational expertise and rose to the upper echelons of Hamas' politburo. He planned the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank in 2014, which sparked a seven-week conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza during the same year. Before that attack, he spent 15 years in an Israeli prison. The United States also had a $5 million bounty on his head for directing Hamas' operations in the West bank.
Yet a more important consideration for Israel was that Arouri, like Hamas' top commander Yahya Sinwar, was personally invested in enhancing the organization's strategic relationships with other elements of the so-called Axis of Resistance—Iran, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, as well as Yemen's Houthis. As a senior Hamas official told The Wall Street Journal, "He [Arouri] truly believed in the Axis of Resistance and proudly credited himself as the main Hamas liaison for them." He reportedly pushed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to supply Hamas with weapons during a November meeting in Tehran.
With Arouri now neutralized, the big question is whether Hezbollah will respond in some way. As stated previously, it's not like Hezbollah has been sitting on its hands and watching as Israel fights its Axis of Resistance partner in Gaza. The Israel-Lebanon border is an undeclared war zone, with tens of thousands of civilians (Israelis and Lebanese alike) having been evacuated from the Blue Line due to the ongoing hostilities. Israel and Hezbollah have kept their fire confined within a few miles of the border. Both have issued bellicose language toward the other, but neither appear to want to repeat their experience in 2006, when a full-blown conflict pulverized Lebanese infrastructure and killed dozens of Israeli soldiers for the sake of a draw.
The Israeli strike against Arouri, however, could up the ante—not necessarily because a senior Hamas official was killed, but rather because the killing took place in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold. During a speech in August, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah issued a red-line on Israeli assassination attempts on Lebanese territory, arguing it would change the rules-of-the-game that have governed Israel-Hezbollah deterrence since the 2006 war. Such a change in policy would be a giant, risky leap for Hezbollah, who despite sharing a common anti-Israel ideology with Hamas still has to be careful of risking its own destruction for the sake of the Palestinian militant group. Since the Oct. 7 attack, Hezbollah has tried to thread the needle by engaging in just enough military action to be seen as supporting Hamas but not too much as to prompt a massive Israeli bombardment.
This tricky balancing act may have gotten a whole lot trickier.
Daniel R. DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a syndicated foreign affairs columnist at the Chicago Tribune.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Hamas' Arouri Was Too Tempting a Target for Israel To Pass Up
6
0
04.01.2024
If history tells us anything, it's that Israel isn't afraid to neutralize its sworn enemies regardless of where they're located. This is especially true if an individual is an architect of a terrorist attack that kills Israelis. The Jan. 2 assassination of Hamas deputy political chief Saleh Arouri in Lebanon, purportedly by an Israeli drone, is therefore not a surprise. It was expected and for many in the Israeli national security establishment long overdue. Even Arouri himself expected to die, commenting two months before Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that he was "living on borrowed time."
Assuming Israel is responsible for Arouri's killing, it wouldn't be the first time the country utilized its extensive counterterrorism apparatus to take out a target. The examples are too long to count. The most infamous Israeli operation, codenamed Operation Wrath of God, was a 20-year campaign that tracked and killed members of Black September, an affiliate of the Palestine Liberation Organization, after they murdered 10 Israeli athletes and a local officer during the 1972 Olympic Games. That operation took Israeli intelligence officers to multiple countries, including those outside the Middle East.
In October 1985, Israeli aircraft conducted a long-range strike operation against then-Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chief Yasser Arafat's compound in Tunisia after Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis in Cyprus days earlier. While Arafat wasn't........
© Newsweek
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Rami G Khouri
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
