Whacking Sinwar yesterday was a stroke of luck that, upon further review, seems to have been one of those mystical pre-ordained events when you look at everything that fell into place to enable that moment in time.

In the first place, they weren't supposed to be in Rafa at all. Great, strategic minds had studied the maps and determined there was no value to an Israeli offensive (in the 'distasteful' sense) in the area.

Warning sternly against any action, these deep-thinking veterans of Middle Eastern affairs and acknowledged international sages declared such a venture would be a 'yuge' mistake.

Jack Sullivan, Biden's National Security Advisor, on March 19, 2024: “Israel's 🇮🇱 military operation in Rafah would be a mistake” 👇

Sinwar was eliminated in Rafah today. Thanks God @netanyahu ignored Biden, Kamala, Blinken, and Sullivan.
pic.twitter.com/6ADwyItXSg

— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) October 17, 2024

I'VE STUDIED THE MAPS

“It would be a huge mistake for Israel to enter Rafah. I've studied the maps”

I will never get over this sound bite. The worst possible combination of ignorant and arrogant. pic.twitter.com/oNVDQVGLLr https://t.co/4wX1bqdldH

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) October 17, 2024

Oh, well, there you have it.

Fortunately, the Israelis paid the geniuses no mind. 

The American press dutifully pilloried the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) for their operations. 

The complaint was the IDF left Rafa looking like a warzone.

Do tell.

Thick clouds of dirt and sand fill the air as our convoy of Humvees arrives in Rafah, the first time international reporters have been allowed in since the Israeli military launched its ground assault on this city two months ago.

As the dust settles, the scale of destruction is startling. But it is also all-too familiar.

This part of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city which became the last refuge for more than a million Palestinians earlier in the war, is now unrecognizable.

Israel has repeatedly described its ground operation in Rafah as “limited.” But in this neighborhood in southern Rafah, the destruction looks almost identical to what I’ve seen in northern Gaza, in central Gaza and in Khan Younis through the limited prism of trips into Gaza with the Israeli military.

Some homes are flattened and other buildings bombed out.

Maybe because it was/is?

Just stabbing in the dark here.

After what was deemed a generally successful bug hunt, pressure from within also began for the IDF to wrap up in Rafa, and move on to other areas, not to mention the exploding border with Lebanon.

There again, the divine hand of intervention and a few wise voices with enough firepower to count urged caution and to slow the withdrawal down.

The 'let's leave some folks for a bit to make sure' crowd carried the day. 

That's how a tank crew made up of volunteers - who'd left attending a safe training course to help out - wound up being the sharp-eyed, last Johnnies-on-the-Spot who noticed bad guys booking into a building. 

So they put a couple of tank rounds through the apartment to ensure they couldn't come out.

I mean, you can't make this stuff up - it's so great.

Divine Intervention 100%

— Julia Hugo Rachel (@JuliaHugoRachel) October 17, 2024

I swear to God, this was all meant to happen.

The Israelis waited until they had the body and could confirm the DNA, etc, before they made the announcement everyone was waiting for.

Did you know how the Israelis came to have everything they needed to confirm the corpse in the ruins was truly the infamous murdering scumbag?

They'd saved his life by treating his brain cancer during the time he spent in an Israeli prison decades before.

...When the soldiers returned to the scene next morning they found that one of the bodies bore striking resemblance to Sanwar, a BBC report said.

They didn’t move the body for fear of booby traps and instead removed a part of the finger and sent it to Israel for testing, it said.

Sinwar was imprisoned in Israel from the late 1980s to 2011. In 2008, when he was in Eshel Prison, he developed a brain tumour, The Atlantic said.  An Israeli surgeon operated on his head and saved his life.

His extended stay in prison and treatment for brain cancer left Israeli authorities with extensive medical records such as dental imprints and DNA.

Sinwar was identified by matching his dental information and fingerprints with records on file, the New York Times report cited police as saying.

Ah, the irony.

Terrorists and their gratitude for humanity shown to them are two mutually exclusive concepts.

As soon as Sinwar's demise was official, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the people of Gaza and said, "This war can end tomorrow."

“All your leaders are dead. Time to give up !
Release the hostages, lay down your weapons, Hamas !”@netanyahu ‘s strong message today, in a very important moment that could be …the beggining of the end of the war.

🎥 @visegrad24 pic.twitter.com/DRnXm3o9Bc

— miha schwartzenberg (@mihaschw) October 17, 2024

RELEASE THE HOSTAGES - LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS, HAMAS

I don't see where it could be any clearer an appeal for peace. It also lays the onus for that peace squarely in the lap of the Gazan people and the now leaderless remnants of Hamas still in the tunnels. 

Netanyahu offered amnesty to anyone who facilitated the return of the hostages, saying, "Israel will guarantee the safety" of anyone who helps.

That's it. It could all end tomorrow.

BUT, Netanyahu warns - harm one hair on a hostage's head, and he will hunt you down.

It's an easy, binary choice.

So, who's the bad guy in all this?

According to al-Reuters, Netanyahu is the one crushing everyone's peaceful hopes and dreams.

Netanyahu promises more war, dashing peace hopes after Hamas leader killed

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's promises to press on with Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon dashed hopes on Friday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar might help end more than a year of escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah meanwhile vowed to escalate fighting against Israel and its backer Iran said "the spirit of resistance" would be strengthened by the death of its Palestinian ally Sinwar in Gaza.

Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Gaza war, was killed during an operation by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday, a pivotal event in the year-long conflict.

Netanyahu called Sinwar's killing a milestone late on Thursday but vowed to keep up the war, which in recent weeks expanded from fighting against Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza into an invasion of southern Lebanon and the bombardment of large swathes of the country.

"The war, my dear ones, is not yet over," Netanyahu told Israelis, saying fighting would continue until hostages held by Hamas are released.

Netanyahu is the reason conflict is "escalating" in the Middle East, not emboldened terrorist regimes and Iranian proxies acting with impunity. Snickering as they watch US fecklessness and double-dealing hold Israel back while actively working to undercut and compromise Israeli operations.

That's an all-well and good delusional take as long as you ignore October 7, 2023.

As long as one is also willing to swallow the Democratic, progressive, and anti-Semitic concept of a 'proportional' response to a murderous, savage, barbaric, and unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation.

I'm not.

If you are celebrating the elimination of Sinwar, you should also be celebrating the premiership of Bibi Netanyahu. No other Israeli leader would have stayed in the fight this long and achieved this victory. Since weeks after 10/7, the pressure on Israel from the Democratic…

— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) October 17, 2024

...Since weeks after 10/7, the pressure on Israel from the Democratic Party, Europe, the UN, the media, the western foreign policy and political establishment, etc, to cut a deal, to agree to a "ceasefire," to surrender, has been unrelenting and enormous. And for a full year, the leader of a tiny and vulnerable country has resisted and outmaneuvered the pressure to stop fighting. It's a remarkable achievement, and it's the real reason Sinwar is dead.

Bibi has offered Hamas a peace they truly don't deserve, much like that surgeon saving Sinwar's life decades ago.

Israel knows it could very well bite them brutally in the asterisk yet again.

Back when Yahya Sinwar was in prison, Israeli doctors identified a tumour and saved his life.

In 2011, Sinwar was released in the Gilad Shalit hostage swap.

Let this be a lesson: Never save terrorists, and never again release them in any deal. pic.twitter.com/TK7rkEdMSg

— 𝗡𝗶𝗼𝗵 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗴 ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) October 17, 2024

But that right there is also the difference between the terrorists and Israel...and terrorist apologists.