With the blessed, sudden demise of arch evil Hamas terror leader, Yahya Sinwar, it's worthwhile examining the rise of terror organizations and brutal, evil, yet charming leaders commanding them.
Sinwar was the mastermind not only of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, but also of numerous other terror attacks against Jews and Israelis.
He believed that the only way to help the Palestinian cause was through all out, frontal attacks against Israel.
He would often say. "Only through armed struggle will the Palestinians be free."
Yahya Sinwar was charismatic. He was dynamic. He was a powerful speaker. He was a man of action. And his character traits were no exception to those of many other terror leaders.
Terror leaders emerge as such because they possess certain charismatic traits.
These traits make them extremely effective at terror while generating support and, most importantly, attracting followers to their cause.
They operate on two levels.
Obviously, they have the ability to attract the martyr (Shahid), or terrorist who will willingly kill themselves in order to murder masses of innocent people.
Just as importantly for their cause, they also attract many more people who won't murder, but who will gleefully support the killing of innocents as an honorable defense, because they have been convinced that Palestinians are in perilous straits.
Supporters of the terrorists comprised the much larger group.
Yes, they are on the streets of Gaza.
However, now, more and more they are also on U.S. and European campuses and on the streets of large metropolitan cities across the United States and Europe.
Yahya Sinwar was a devout Sunni Muslim.
He was a graduate of the Islamic University of Gaza with a BA in Arabic studies.
His mastery of the Quran was impressive.
Sinwar achieved the level of "hafiz" — someone who has memorized the entire Quran.
All 77,797 words of it. A woman who reaches this level is a "hafiza."
Sinwar was also known as the "The Butcher of Khan Yunis." Khan Yunis is the city in which he was born.
At that time, on Oct. 19, 1962, the city of Khan Yunis was in Egypt.
The moniker, The Butcher, was bestowed on him because he tortured and brutally murdered Palestinians he believed to be collaborating with Israel.
He admitted to strangling one with his bare hands, one with a keffiyeh, one accidently while brutally torturing him and one because his gun accidently went off. Following his confession, he led his Israeli interrogators to the orchard where the bodies were buried.
Sinwar spent 22 years in Israeli prison.
Even while inside prison he was also responsible for the beheading of two prisoners whom he thought informed to the prison authorities.
He told the prison guards to throw out the "heads of the dogs."
Despite all his murderous activity — he is said to have murdered 11 more collaborators — Yahya Sinwar was released from Israeli prison in 2011, along with 1,026 other terrorists.
They were exchanged for one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
Those 22 years in Israeli prison became an academic graduate program for Sinwar.
He sharpened his skills as a leader and a terrorist.
He mastered Hebrew, taking online courses. He took at least 15 courses at the Open University on Judaism, Jewish history, Rabbinic Judaism, 2nd Temple, Zionism, Holocaust, Israeli democracy and more.
He turned his prison time into a graduate school about his enemy — Israel and the Jews.
While in prison Sinwar translated books about terrorism and biographies of the head of Israel’s security services.
From this, he learned counter terrorism. His translations were read and spread throughout the prison. He even wrote a novel while in prison.
Not surprisingly, Adolf Hitler authored "Mein Kampf" while he was in prison.
Yasser Arafat and Hassan Nasrallah were similar personalities.
They, like Sinwar, were able to captivate and charm people into following their leadership and commit to the murderous cause in the name of honor.
Along the way to becoming terrorist leaders, they also personally amassed huge sums of money. The money was squirreled away for themselves. When Arafat died the secret whereabouts of the billions of dollars he had squirreled away died with him.
Yasser Arafat, like Yahya Sinwar, had no compunction about approving and paying for the mass murder of Jews. For Arafat, like for Sinwar, the only way to achieve the goal of a Palestinian state was through violent uprising.
As Arafat said time and time again, "Countries are not created. Countries are fought for and they emerge out of conflict."
The death of Yahya Sinwar is significant. By removing the head of the snake, the masses will be leaderless, opening up the opportunity for positive opportunities to emerge.
Micah Halpern is a political and foreign affairs commentator. He founded "The Micah Report" and hosts "Thinking Out Loud with Micah Halpern," a weekly TV program, and "My Chopp," a daily radio spot. Follow him on Twitter @MicahHalpern. Read Micah Halpern's Reports More Here.
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