LOS ANGELES.–Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened to retaliate for the death of 62-year-old Palestinian leader-in-exile Ismail Haniyeh, insisting it was Iran’s duty to respond to an assassination on Iranian soil. Haniyeh was attending the July 31 inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezezhkian in Tehran. Haniyeh, who owns multiple home in various Mideast capitals, had a net worth estimated at $4 billion, obtained by plundering Gaza donor cash for the last 17 years like many other corrupt Hamas officials. But Haniyeh’s presence in Tehran at speaks volumes about the relationship between the Ayatollah and his terrorist proxies used to create havoc in the Middle East and North Africa. Haniyeh was just another puppet of the Ayatollah’s Shiite mullah regime, one of the most brutal regimes on the planet in terms of any civil or human rights. Khamenei sleeps with one eye open, waiting for the next assassination attempt against him.
Haniyeh inserted himself into the Cairo-based ceasefire negotiations attempting to end the Gaza War but only if it preserves Hamas rule over the Gaza Strip. Hamas seized Gaza June 24, 2007 in a bloodless coup from Mahmoud Abbas and the Ramallah-based Palestinian authority, the Palestinian remnants of Yasser Arafat’s 1964 Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] and Fattah movement, both designed, like Hamas, to return Arabs to the Holy Land. Arafat was the first Arab official to coin the term Palestinian to designate Arab Bedouins living in the Holy Land for over 500 years under Ottoman Empire and British Control. Arafat’s PLO narrative erases Ottoman control of the Holy Land, placing sovereignty into Palestinians. In the wake of WW I, the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires were stripped in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres of their sovereignty over vast areas of Europe, the Mideast and North Africa, turning the Holy Land over to the British.
WW II and the Nazi Holocaust gave Arabs the motivation to persecute Jews who received in 1948 British Mandate of Palestine. So, for many Palestinians, they subscribe to Adolf Hitler’s Final Solution for the Zionist state. Netanyahu sees the parallels with Israel’s current Arab enemies and Nazi Germany, something that gives rise to anti-Semitism around the globe. Israel’s battle against anti-Semitism, especially in waging its battle against Iran, directly relates to the Ayatollah’s continuation of the Nazi Holocaust. When the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre took place in Southern Israel near Gaza border, it was a mini-Holocaust, coordinated by Yahya Sinwar with Tehran’s blessings.
Ayatollah Khamenei would be smart to stop his genocidal campaign against Israel, promising in the wake of Haniyeh’s death to continue the Zionist “resistance.” Khamenei likes to hide behind the Palestinian cause, when, in fact, he is bitter enemies with Sunni Islam, the same branch as Palestinians. Khamenei Islamic Revolution is built off Hitler’s Final Solution but only as it lends an excuse to state sponsored terrorism. “We’ll settle the score with anyone who harms us, anyone who massacres our children, anyone who murders our civilians, anyone who hurts our nation, blood is on his head,” Netanyahu said yesterday in a nationwide speech. Netanyahu mentioned nothing about Haniyeh’s assassination or that of Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, killed in an Israeli air strike in a Lebanon suburb July 30. Hamas officials have not confirmed the death of Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas military wing.
Initial reports of Haniyeh’s death indicated he was killed by a rocket attack in a Tehran suburb. New reports indicate Haniyeh was killed by a bomb planted months before it was detonated by remote control. Chief of Kabul-based Taliban suicide squad Hamid Khorasani blames the Ayatollah for Haniyeh’s death, criticizing the oppressive mullah regime. When the mullah regime’s Basij militia beat to death 22-year-ol Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini Sept. 16, 2022 it sparked nationwide riots. So, when it comes to the Ayatollah restoring order, it was only through a brutal crackdown on Iranian citizens. News about Haniyeh killed by a bomb planted in his safe house months before prompted Taliban’s Knorasani to finger the Ayatollah in Haniyeh’s assassination. When it comes to Iran’s mullah regime, no act of sabotage or treachery is out of the question.
Promising to retaliate against Israel for Haniyeh’s death, the Ayatollah has limited options, especially if the Taliban is right that he orchestrated Haniyeh’s death, not Israel. But assuming that Israel was responsible, it’s a colossal intel failure by the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC]. Haniyeh’s presence in Tehran takes all pretence for Iran’s state sponsored terrorism off the table. Khamenei no longer hides Iran’s proxy war against Israel and other Sunni states like Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman knows all about the Ayatollah’s state sponsored terrorism against Saudi Arabia through Iran’s Houthi rebels. Ayatollah wants to point fingers at Israel’s Mossad security service to deny any of Tehran’s involvement in Haniyeh’s death. It’s very suspicious that a bomb was planted months ago at Haniyeh’s safe house in Tehran.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
