Yahya Sinwar: Palestinian Resistance Leader Has Netanyahu in a Corner

August 17, 2024

Hamas' leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar at a press conference. 

By Iqbal Jassat

The much-vaunted “total victory” of “defeating Hamas” and “freeing the hostages”, was an unrealistic and unattainable military objective as has been proven by the resilience of the resistance led by Sinwar.

Haunted by the memory of the release of Yahya Sinwar thirteen years ago on October 18, 2011, along with more than a thousand Palestinian political prisoners in exchange for an Isreali soldier Gilad Shalit, the corrupt war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu faces a humiliating end of his political career.

Shalit was captured in a daring raid from his military base inside Israel by Hamas operatives, five years earlier.

Following protracted negotiations which saw Hamas gain the upper hand, Netanyahu succumbed by signing off the deal, which his partners viewed as “lopsided”.

In a cruel twist of irony, Sinwar who had been sentenced to four life terms and had been behind bars for 22 years, is currently the head of Hamas leading the resistance against Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza.

And as fate would have it, Netanyahu faces severe embarrassment and ignominy knowing that his mortal enemy, whom he had vowed to kill, is on the opposite end of the current ceasefire negotiations – in full control of Hamas’ narrative.

As one Israeli journalist lamented to underscore the shame and obvious mortification of Netanyahu, who he said would have had fewer problems with a deal if Sinwar was “not still on the run in the Gaza underworld”.

In other words, at the end of 10 horrific months of relentless savagery that resulted in the loss of more than 40,000 Palestinian lives – mainly women, children, and the old – Netanyahu and his criminal gang of warlords have failed miserably to achieve any political or military goals apart from pulverizing civilians and the Gaza Strip as a whole.

A PR disaster indeed for the apartheid settler colonial entity, whose decades of investment in projecting its image as a “caring nation” having the “most moral army in the world”, is utterly and completely shattered.

The much-vaunted “total victory” of “defeating Hamas” and “freeing the hostages”, was an unrealistic and unattainable military objective as has been proven by the resilience of the resistance led by Sinwar.

Far from being unfairly depicted by Israeli “hasbarists” (propagandists) as a “monster”, Sinwar enjoys the iconic status of a revolutionary leader among Arab masses and many social justice activists across the world.

David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, commenting on the life of Sinwar, writes that he regarded Israeli prison as an “academy,” a place to learn the language, psychology, and history of the enemy.

He adds that like many other Palestinians designated as “security prisoners,” Sinwar became fluent in Hebrew and consumed Israeli newspapers and radio broadcasts, along with books about Zionist theorists, politicians, and intelligence chiefs. Despite the length of his sentence, he was preparing for his release and the resumption of armed resistance.

“Until 1948, Sinwar’s parents and grandparents lived in Al-Majdal, a town north of Gaza now known as Ashkelon. During the war against the newborn state of Israel—a period of suffering and displacement known in Arabic as the Nakba, or ‘catastrophe’ —the family fled south and into the Gaza Strip.”

Born in 1962, Sinwar grew up in a large family in the Khan Yunis refugee camp.

Much like how Nelson Mandela’s biography was secretly written while he was imprisoned in Robben Island and the concealed pages smuggled out, Sinwar’s life of struggle against Zionism can be found in an autobiographical novel that he wrote in 2004, while still in prison, called “Al-Shawk wa’l Qurunful” (translated as “The Thorn and the Carnation”).

Remnick writes that fellow prisoners “worked like ants” to smuggle out his manuscript and “bring it into the light,” according to the preface.

As is the norm among hypocritical corporates fearful of being blackmailed as “antisemites”, Sinwar’s much sought-after novel translated into English was removed from bookshelves.

In his detailed article, Remnick points out that up to and until last December, Amazon had the English version on offer but removed it after “several pro-Israel groups took offense and warned Jeff Bezos that selling it could be a violation of British and U. S. antiterrorism laws…”.

Al-Aqsa Flood has been described as the most devastating attack on the Zionist colony since the ’67 war. Not only has it shaken the occupiers to the core with thousands upon thousands fleeing, but it has galvanized global solidarity for Palestine’s freedom struggle in unprecedented ways.

Hamas “remains steadfast in the battlefield and in politics,” Osama Hamdan, spokesperson for the group, told Al Jazeera. “The person leading today is the one who led the fighting for more than 305 days and is still steadfast in the field.”

– Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the South Africa-based Media Review Network. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit: www.mediareviewnet.com