Hamas rewards terrorists for brutal October 7 attack | EDITORIAL | Editorial

Hamas has a new leader. And his rise speaks volumes.

On Tuesday, the terror group announced that Yahya Sinwar had been appointed as the successor to Ismail Haniyeh, the former head of its political wing who was assassinated in Iran last month. Israel is believed to be responsible for the bomb planted in a Tehran guesthouse that killed Haniyeh.

Let us recall that after the barbaric Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, Haniyeh was seen on video celebrating the massacre together with other terrorist leaders.

Sinwar, meanwhile, was one of the architects of this rampage, in which almost 1,200 Israelis were killed, mostly innocent civilians. Other victims – including many women and children – were sexually abused or brutally tortured. Hamas took dozens of people hostage, some of whom are still in captivity.

Sinwar’s past is revealing. In 1988, at the age of 26, he was convicted in Israel, court records show, “for murdering four Palestinians he accused of apostasy or collaboration with Israel,” reports the New York Times. After 23 years behind bars, Sinwar was released in a prisoner exchange. He soon began advocating and planning attacks on the Jewish state.

The selection of Sinwar – who was in hiding for fear of an Israeli assassination attempt – suggests that “Hamas is sending a message,” one analyst told the Wall Street Journal, “that it is strategically behind the armed resistance approach.”

In other words, Hamas has no interest in peace. It has no interest in it – not even in its own people, whom it uses as a civilian shield and thereby provokes death – but in fomenting terror and trying to destroy the State of Israel.

The Harris-Biden administration, plagued by radical progressives who side with Sinwar and his terror group rather than defend the region’s only democracy fighting for its survival, is now trying to get Iran to back down from a potential attack on Israel in retaliation for Haniyeh’s killing. Fine. But it hasn’t helped that the White House is encouraging Sinwar and Hezbollah by spending more time urging Israel to back down than firmly warning Iran and its proxy terrorists that the United States stands behind the Jewish state and there will be consequences if they continue to fund death and unrest in the region.

The Times wrote: “Israeli and American intelligence officials have said Sinwar’s strategy is to keep the war in Gaza going until Israel’s international reputation is ruined and its relationship with its most important ally, the United States, is damaged.”

The Harris-Biden administration foolishly played into his hands.