Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 attacks, was a top target for Israel. After months of Israel claiming that Sinwar was hiding in tunnels behind “human shields,” the Hamas leader was gravely wounded by tank fire when he was above ground and alone, as he sat on a chair covered in dust in a ruined apartment, according to drone footage released by the Israeli military.
Following the news of Sinwar’s death, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a post on X: “After recent conversations w/leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia & UAE, I have real hope that Sinwar’s death creates truly historic opportunities for Israel’s security, cessation of fighting & regional peace & stability through normalization of relations. The moment must be seized.”
Just beneath the surface of Blumenthal’s remarks is a widely discussed mega-deal that would effectively create a U.S.-Gulf regime neo-colony in Gaza, commit the U.S. to going to war for Saudi Arabia, and plunge us deeper into a new cold war with China.
Israel does want the land, but they can’t “just take it”. The humanitarian crisis and the many civilian casualties they have caused, or are at the very least willing to accept, are seriously damaging their relations with the rest of the world. They have to make this go away, one way or another, otherwise they will be isolated at some point, and they really can’t afford to reach it.
If they were to occupy Gaza and expell all Palestinians now, you’d have hundreds of thousands of refugees. No one wants to take in that many people, so it would cause significant tension with everyone around them and play into the hands of their enemies. If they don’t drive them off but suppress them (or worse…), the problem continues, so that’s not really a good option either. Giving up on some land, that isn’t theirs to begin with, is a small price to pay to (maybe) make their problem go away. At the same time, they will likely even keep a bunch of land they already occupy.
As for Saudi Arabia: They want influence. And this would give them a whole lot of it, even if they only kinda solve this conflict.