Yousef al-Masri

The "Israeli" newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth cited top sources in the "Israeli" leadership as saying that the assassination of Samir al-Quntar is a "file-closing" operation according to "Israel."

This term is often used by "Israeli" intelligence to announce the conducting of a revenge operation for the sake of its soldiers or settlers who were killed by the resistance, whether Palestinian or Lebanese. According to "Israeli" intelligence, Samir al-Quntar was sought after for revenge according to the theory of "closing the file."

However, also in "Israel" there is a political level that has the right to make final decisions on the timing of performing any "file-closing" operations or not. There is no doubt that the "Israeli" political consideration of the timing is related to its internal and foreign circumstances. It was clear that Benjamin Netanyahu's government needed a "file-closing" operation with al-Quntar in this phase for several vital political reasons:

The first reason is to respond to the deterioration of the figure of "Israeli" ability on security deterrence, which is declining more and more as the popular uprising in Palestine, especially in al-Quds, has become two months old. This uprising saw Palestinian civilians conducting attacks against "Israeli" settlers and soldiers using cold weapons. The images of armed "Israeli" soldiers running in front of a Palestinian youngster or woman holding a kitchen knife or any other traditional sharp tool in front of them went viral on social media in "Israel." The spread of this image reflected the huge deterioration of the "Israeli" army's morale, as well as its security wings, in addition to the increase in "Israeli" mistrust in the "Israeli" military and security deterrence system.

Hence, it was urgently demanded on the "Israeli" level that the army and intelligence would either stop the deterioration of the "Israeli" morale, or express some hope that the "Israeli" security ability still exists.

Second: the "Israeli" political timing to the assassination of the Leader of the freed detainees, martyr Samir al-Quntar, was made on purpose because Netanyahu wants to make a link between the financial war launched by the financial intelligence in the American treasury against Hizbullah, and the "Israeli" intelligence and military effort against it both in Lebanon and Syria.

It is known that inside the Netanyahu government, there is an age-old principle that insists on Tel Aviv trying every time it notices an American attack on Hizbullah to create a role for itself in this attack, despite the fact that America wishes to practice policies that serve "Israel's" interests in the region without showing the latter it is participating in executing such policies. This is related to Washington's desire to show that its policies reflect its interests and the interests of the international community instead of the interests that are related to the extensive "Israeli" security.

In this context, "Israel" wants to use the remarkable American escalation in this phase against Hizbullah as a political cover under which it would practice security and intelligence escalation against it. According to observers, it is possible that Tel Aviv would increase its security crimes against Hizbullah in this phase of escalation.

Third: the "Israeli" operation of assassinating al-Quntar made clear that Tel Aviv wants to use it as an opportunity that would produce an argument aiming at putting the issue of the occupied Golan and its "Israeli security" on the table of international negotiations to solve the Syrian crisis.

It is not a secret that in al-Quntar's personality there is the interaction of two symbols. On the one hand, he expresses the resistance of the Druze Arab component to occupation, and their insistence on liberating the Golan Heights and returning it to Syria as a major national symbolism. On the other hand, it expresses the will of the Arab and Palestinian detainee, as well as the exceptionalism of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon that liberated him.

Regarding the first symbolism of al-Quntar's personality, followed by his role, according to Tel Aviv's talk about the establishment of a resistance to liberate the Golan Heights, "Israel" is interested in assassinating him as it provokes the idea that "Israeli" security in the Golan Heights should be among the issues put forward in the international negotiations regarding the settlement in Syria. Hence, by assassinating him, it aims at delivering a message to international figures that it is insisting on "guaranteeing "Israeli" security in the Golan Heights" under any search for restoring security in Syria.

Information offered to "al-Binaa" said that "Israel" is concerned with speeding up obtaining security guarantees regarding the stability of its occupation in the Golan Heights, on the basis of a strategic project that aims at launching exploration of gas and oil in the area in 2017, as studies uncovered that there are huge amounts of those two resources in this region. However, "Israel" is delaying the exploration until it receives guarantees on the stability of its occupation there, in which it can convince international companies to start exploring and investing in that region.

According to the same source, in the assassination of al-Quntar, there is the goal of speeding up listing the Golan Heights issue among the issues to be negotiated internationally regarding Syria, but what would the fate of this "Israeli" message be in case the resistance responded with a message from the Golan Heights itself?

Source: al-Binaa Newspaper, Translated and Edited by website team