'Israelis view Yahya Sinwar who masterminded the October 7 attack as a criminal'
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00:00Of course, Israelis view Yair Hassinwar, who masterminded the October 7th attack, as a
00:06criminal, a murderer, an arch-terrorist.
00:09And so just really minutes after he was announced to now be the new political chief of Hamas,
00:16we heard Israeli leaders coming out, even the head of the spokesman for the Israeli
00:22army saying, you know, we only have one place for Yair Hassinwar, and that's right next
00:28to Mohamed Def.
00:31That is his deputy, who Israel assassinated a couple weeks ago.
00:36Hassinwar has long been on Israel's, at the top of Israel's wanted list.
00:41And it's clear that killing Sinwar for Israel will be a kind of turning point in the war.
00:50And the fact that he's now the political chief only makes that more true for the Israelis.
00:56Having said that, you know, from the Palestinian camp, I don't think this is a surprise.
01:02Some view Sinwar as a hero for his attack.
01:06But it does show that Hamas is unwilling to moderate or soften its positions, including
01:15any future, future steps, for example, giving up its arms, demilitarizing and being part
01:23of a larger Palestinian ruling body in the Gaza Strip.
01:29I mean, the selection of Yair Hassinwar as the head of Hamas signals that it will continue
01:35to be an extremist, violent terrorist organization instead of evolving, if you want to say, into
01:44a political body that has a place in kind of the mainstream Palestinian camp.
01:53And that, I think, is a bad sign and a bad development, even for Palestinians.