Insight and opinion from The National’s editorial leadership
January 03, 2024
A precision airstrike killing Saleh Al Arouri, one of the most senior figures in the Palestinian militant group Hamas, at his home in Beirut on Tuesday has threatened to make an already combustible situation between Israel and its neighbours much worse. Although it has not formally claimed responsibility, Israel is suspected of having conducted the strike as part of its ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Killing Mr Al Arouri in Lebanon was a dangerous move for two reasons. First, it escalates a war that has already killed more than 22,000 Palestinians and more than 1,000 Israelis. Second, it widens the war’s contours – already expanded by Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks along the Lebanese border and in various locations in Syria – all the way to the Lebanese capital.
Analysts have frequently taken to using words like “precision”, “co-ordination” and “sophistication” to describe Hamas’s shock attack against Israel on October 7. Hamas, it seemed, had planned the attack to a standard even the most unified and disciplined forces might find difficult to achieve.
Ironically, the sophistication and unity presented in Hamas’s operation has never been matched within the organisation as a whole. Like many militant groups, Hamas has long been divided between pragmatic and extremist elements. The former had, in previous years, inched the group closer towards a modus vivendi with Israel, while the latter has pushed it deeper into the Iran-backed “axis of resistance” that comprises a host of other militant groups destabilising the Middle East.
The killing widens the war’s contours all the way to the Lebanese capital
Mr Al Arouri was a leader – by some accounts, a primaryleader – in Hamas’s extremist wing. His death is no great loss to the cause of peace. Nor, however, is it a gift. The October 7 attack was the greatest sign yet of the extremists’ ascendancy within the Hamas ranks – a rise precipitated by growing certainty among Gazans that pragmatic approaches no longer have any hope of working against Israeli repression because, the argument goes, Israel’s government is not open to peace. Its tolerance of settler violence in the West Bank, its insistence that Palestinians should remain geographically and politically divided and – most of all – the brutality of its campaign in Gaza are all a testament to that.
De-escalation and moves towards a ceasefire would, of course, be the best way for Israel to prove its critics wrong at this moment in time. Expanding its revenge killing to foreign capitals and higher-profile targets is not. In fact, there is little evidence that assassinations of this kind have ever made Israel safer. But there is plenty of evidence they have bred more extremists.
Israel’s government was clearly aware of how provocative conducting a strike in Beirut would be. Almost immediately afterwards, Mark Regev, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stammered in an interview with a US television channel, stressing: “Whoever did this, it’s not an attack on the Lebanese state. It’s not an attack on the Hezbollah terrorist organisation. Whoever did this, it’s an attack on Hamas.”
Hezbollah, the militant group controlling Lebanon’s government, appears to disagree. It released a statement on Wednesday calling Mr Al Arouri’s killing “a serious assault on Lebanon”.
It is far from certain that Hezbollah will allow the death of a Hamas official – even on Lebanese soil – to drag it into a ruinous conflagration that could see it lose its grip on the Lebanese state. Nonetheless, there is a risk, and the consequences for everyone – in Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and elsewhere – would be catastrophic.
Thus far, the world has relied on the US, Israel’s main supporter, to rein in any Israeli government designs to take the fight to Lebanon. Officials in Washington are said to have put immense pressure on Mr Netanyahu to that end. Clearly, they ought to be putting more.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Saturday (All UAE kick-off times)
Valencia v Atletico Madrid (midnight)
Mallorca v Alaves (4pm)
Barcelona v Getafe (7pm)
Villarreal v Levante (9.30pm)
Sunday
Granada v Real Volladolid (midnight)
Sevilla v Espanyol (3pm)
Leganes v Real Betis (5pm)
Eibar v Real Sociedad (7pm)
Athletic Bilbao v Osasuna (9.30pm)
Monday
Real Madrid v Celta Vigo (midnight)
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
Grade 9 = above an A*
Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
Grade 7 = grade A
Grade 6 = just above a grade B
Grade 5 = between grades B and C
Grade 4 = grade C
Grade 3 = between grades D and E
Grade 2 = between grades E and F
Grade 1 = between grades F and G
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
2018 ICC World Twenty20 Asian Western Regional Qualifier
The top three teams progress to the Asia Qualifier
Final: UAE beat Qatar by nine wickets
Third-place play-off: Kuwait beat Saudi Arabia by five runs
Table
1 UAE 5 5 0 10
2 Qatar 5 4 1 8
3 Saudi 5 3 2 6
4 Kuwait 5 2 3 4
5 Bahrain 5 1 4 2
6 Maldives 5 0 5 0
The Lost Letters of William Woolf
Helen Cullen, Graydon House
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring:Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
'Morbius'
Director: Daniel Espinosa
Stars: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona
Rating: 2/5
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Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
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Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
The Al Barzakh Festival takes place on Wednesday and Thursday at 7.30pm in the Red Theatre, NYUAD, Saadiyat Island. Tickets cost Dh105 for adults from platinumlist.net
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Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
All matches in Bulawayo Friday, Sept 26 – UAE won by 36 runs Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
