The consecutive strikes against a close advisor to Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh have been met in Israel with muted celebration and angst.
By carrying out two attacks in Beirut and Tehran in less than 24 hours, Israel flexed its muscle by showing that it could find and hit high-value targets even at the heart of enemy territory.
Haniyeh was killed in one of the most secure areas of northern Tehran, while Fuad Shukr was targeted in Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut.
The attacks could prompt a full-scale war with Hezbollah and could torpedo efforts to release Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza. This double possibility explains why Israelis did not feel like celebrating.
Channelling 007
For Netanyahu, however, the attacks are an unmitigated success. Moments after Shukr was killed, the Prime Minister’s Office posted a picture of Netanyahu during the attack, seemingly on the phone, as if he had given the order himself.
After Haniyeh was killed, and despite telling all Israeli officials not to discuss it, Netanyahu released a video comparing himself to fictional British spy James Bond. “Netanyahu, Benjamin Netanyahu,” he said, in reference to 007’s famous tagline.
His nonchalance and machismo contrasted sharply with the uncertainty and anxiety of both the region and of the families of Israeli hostages left wondering if that now meant the end of negotiations, given that Haniyeh was leading them for Hamas.
Netanyahu was probably pleased for the good PR. Earlier, he had visiting Majdal Shams, a Druze-majority town in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights where a rocket most think was Hezbollah’s killed 12 children last week. Residents there did not hold back from expressing their anger at the Israeli PM.
Fractures showing
Even more worrying were the riots that broke out at two military bases after Israel’s military police detained nine Israeli soldiers for allegedly torturing and sexually abusing a male Palestinian prisoner from Gaza who was being held there.
This showed a deep fracture within Israeli society, as religious nationalists, Israeli soldiers, and even a far-right Member of Parliament from Netanyahu’s own party, took part in protests that became riots, to defend the soldiers accused of torture. As always: when things are bad, Netanyahu is notably absent.
