Hate Ismail Haniyeh, but don’t celebrate his death - opinion

Arch demon, Hamas terrorist leader, and billionaire thief from the Palestinian people, Ismail Haniyeh, has been assassinated. The Bible says, “When your enemy falls, do not rejoice.”

I feel no joy in this monster’s death – better he would never have been born. But I feel satisfaction that fewer innocent civilians will die now that he has been terminated.

Haniyeh came to thank Iran for its support. Now he’s on a spit in hell.

Israel almost certainly assassinated the terrorist chief of Hamas on Iranian soil, demonstrating the long arm of its justice and vengeance.

What a stupid and evil man Haniyeh was. He could have provided a bright future for the Palestinian people and his own family after Israel’s catastrophic withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. He could have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in international aid into schools, universities, and hospitals, giving his family and the Palestinian people a Singapore-like future.

'Do not rejoice when your enemy falls'

Instead, he hated the Jews so much that he was consumed with killing every last one. And now, along with his wicked sons, he is roasting on a spit in hell, and his family and the innocent Palestinians, from whom this grifter stole billions, are living in a devastated wasteland ruined by Hamas terrorism.

What a fool. What a monster. The Palestinian people, especially, are so much better off with him under the ground.

And still, even with the killing of this genocidal fiend, we Jews should not rejoice, as the Bible says, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles” (Proverbs 24:17). Haniyeh’s death is not a cause for celebration or parades but rather a time for thanks and gratitude to God that evil has been rooted out, and that innocents had been protected via the elimination of a cold-blooded killer intent on murdering the defenseless.

Judaism stands alone as a world religion in its commandment to hate evil. Exhortations to hate all manner of evil abound in the Bible, and God declares His detestation of those who visit cruelty on His children.

Psalm 97 is emphatic: “You who love G-d must hate evil.” Proverbs 8 declares, “The Lord fears to hate evil.” Amos 5 demands, “Hate the evil and love the good.” And Isaiah 5 warns, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.” And concerning the wicked, King David declares unequivocally, “I have hated them with a perfect hatred. They become enemies to me” (Psalm 139).

Hatred is a valid emotion, the appropriate moral response to a human encounter with inhuman cruelty. Mass murderers elicit our most profound hatred and contempt.

On the other hand, the Bible also says we are not to celebrate our enemy’s demise. We do not dance over the body of a murderer like Haniyeh. Indeed, at the Passover Seder, we Jews, upon mentioning the 10 plagues, pour wine out of our glasses 10 separate times to demonstrate that we will not raise a glass to the suffering of the Egyptians, even though they were engaged in genocide. Likewise, after the Red Sea split and drowned the Egyptians, Moses and the Jewish people sang, “The Song of the Sea.” Yet, the Talmud says God rebuked the Israelites, saying: “My creatures are drowning in the sea, yet you have now decided to sing about it?”

We wish there had never been evil in the world. It would have been far better for there never to have to be a Pharaoh, a Hitler, or an Ismael Haniyeh. When Hitler blows his brains out in a Berlin bunker, we give thanks to God that his unspeakable evil has finally come to an end. But who could rejoice after so many innocents have died?

The same is true of October 7, when more than 1,200 people were slaughtered. Are we now going to jump for joy that their killer has been brought to justice? No. This is a time to give thanks to God and show gratitude.

But who can celebrate? The victims’ families are still suffering. The hostages are still in hell. Israeli soldiers continue to die in Gaza and the North. We do not boast over the triumph over evil because its existence must forever be mourned.

Many readers wrote to me that on Purim, Jews celebrate the death of Haman. Incorrect. We celebrate the deliverance of innocent people from genocide.

But for those who go further and quote to me Jesus’ injunction that we are to love our enemies, I respond that to love murderers is to practice contempt against their victims. Those who do not hate Haniyeh or Yahya Sinwar have been morally compromised.

A member of the Taliban who cuts off a woman’s nose and ears, or an al-Qaeda terrorist who flies a plane into a building, has cast off the image of God from their countenance and is no longer our human brother. They deserve not amnesty but abhorrence; not clemency but contempt. And since humans cannot bestow life, neither can they act in the place of God and forgive those who take life.

To my Christian brothers and sisters, I say, as a Jew who published a book about Jesus that is thoroughly sourced in the New Testament, Kosher Jesus, that Jesus never meant to forgive God’s enemies. His words are specific. He says to love your enemy. Your enemy is the guy who steals your parking space. God’s enemies are those who gang-rape women.

Likewise, in advocating turning the other cheek, Jesus never meant that if someone kills 3,000 American citizens on 9/11, you are to allow him to kill 3,000 British as well. Instead, Jesus intended to forgive petty slights rather than monstrous evil.

I do not believe in revenge, something the Bible explicitly prohibits. The ancient Jewish understanding of the biblical injunction of “an eye for an eye” was always financial restitution for the lost productivity of an eye rather than the barbaric taking of an organ itself.

But I do believe in justice, and forgiving murder or loving a terrorist makes a mockery of human love and a shambles of human justice. The human capacity for love is limited enough without us making the reprehensible mistake of directing even a sliver of our heart away from the victims and toward their culprits.

Ecclesiastes expressed it best: There is not just a time to love but also a time to hate. I hate Ismael Haniyeh, but I will not rejoice in his death. It would have been better for the world had he never been born. But once he was, and once he directed his life to unspeakable murder, he needed to be stopped and killed. And for that, I thank God and the brave forces of the Israeli security establishment for making the world a safer, more just, and innocent place. 

The writer is the international best-selling author of the newly published guide to fighting back for Israel: The Israel Warrior, as well as Holocaust Holiday and Kosher Hate. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @RabbiShmuley. To book tickets to the Celebration of the IDF in Times Square on July 31, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com.