EDITORIAL: Hamas rewards terrorist behind brutal Oct. 7 attack

Hamas has a new leader. And his elevation speaks volumes.

On Tuesday, the terror group announced that Yahya Sinwar had been selected to succeed Ismail Haniyeh, the former head of its political wing, who was assassinated last month in Iran. Israel is thought to be responsible for planting a bomb in a Tehran guesthouse that ended Haniyeh’s life.

Let’s remember that following the barbaric Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Haniyeh was seen in video footage with other terrorist leaders celebrating the massacre.

Sinwar, meanwhile, was an architect of that rampage, which left nearly 1,200 Israelis dead, mostly innocent civilians. Other victims — including many women and children — were sexually assaulted or brutally tortured. Hamas seized dozens of people as hostages, some of whom remain in captivity.

Sinwar’s history is revealing. In 1988, at the age of 26, he was convicted in Israel, according to court records, “of murdering four Palestinians whom he accused of apostasy or collaborating with Israel,” The New York Times reports. After 23 years behind bars, Sinwar was released in a prisoner exchange. He soon became active in advocating for and planning attacks on the Jewish state.

The selection of Sinwar — who has been in hiding for fear of an Israeli assassination attempt — indicates that “Hamas is delivering a message,” one analyst told The Wall Street Journal, “that it is strategically lined up behind the armed-resistance approach.”

In other words, Hamas has no interest in peace. It has no interest in anything — not even its own people, whom it uses as civilian shields, inviting deaths — other fomenting terror and trying to eliminate the state of Israel.

The Harris-Biden administration, beset by radical progressives who side with the likes of Sinwar and his terror group over the region’s only democracy fighting for its survival, is now prevailing upon Iran to back off a potential attack on Israel in retaliation for the Haniyeh killing. Fine. But it hasn’t helped that the White House emboldens Sinwar and Hezbollah by spending more time pressuring Israel to stand down than steadfastly warning Iran and its proxy terrorists that the United States stands behind the Jewish state and there will be consequences for continuing to finance death and unrest in the region.

“Israeli and U.S. intelligence officers have said,” the Times wrote, “that Sinwar’s strategy is to keep the war in Gaza going for as long as it takes to shred Israel’s international reputation and to damage its relationship with its primary ally, the United States.”

The Harris-Biden administration has foolishly played into his hands.