Middle East expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar spoke to Israel National News - Arutz Sheva (INN) today about the war against Hamas, including the assassination of Hamas' number two leader Saleh al-Arouri and the debate over who should rule Gaza once the war concludes.
"The assassination of Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut was a necessary step because the man is a mass-killer, his hands are full of Jewish and Israeli blood, and his death was the only destiny which he deserved," Dr, Kedar
"The timing was very important because now we are at war with Hamas, and getting rid of a person like Arouri, the second man in the hierarchy of Hamas, at this time particularly, is very important in order to create the impression and the situation of Israeli victory over Hamas.
"The third message here is to Hassan Nasrallah, the host of Arouri in Beirut. The message is very clear: That Israel can reach everyone in every place in Beirut as well. So Hassan Nasrallah should be very worried about this."
When asked what good it does to eliminate a leader of Hamas when another terrorist is sure to replace him, Dr, Kedar answered, "You are right. Yet, when you get rid of somebody with experience, with knowledge, the one who will replace him will always be inferior. [He will not have] the same experience or the same knowledge. And if you cut the grass very low for a long time, you actually disable the organization from acting."
He said that the next target for assassination should be determined by opportunity. "If you have a situation that you can catch somebody, if you have intelligence, if you have information about him, you carry out a similar action. It depends on the information which you have and the operational ability to carry out such an action."
On the issue of the day after the war in Gaza, Dr. Kedar endorsed the option of working with local families and tribes rather than reinstalling the Palestinian Authority as the ruling power in Gaza.
"Creating entities based on families, extended families, or clans, is the only thing which works in the Middle East. You can compare the Emirates, which are based on clans, which are successful countries, versus the failing states in the Middle East, which are Syria and Iraq and Lebanon, and Sudan and Libya, who are all based on multiple group-countries, which is a failure in the Middle East. Only homogenous can run a normal state, and this is why the clan, one clan for a state, is the best way to establish a state in the Middle East.
"A state based on a clan, usually, in the Middle East, tries to take care of its stability and prosperity and success in everything. They don't look for enemies. Only countries which are based on multiple groups like Syria, they need an external enemy like Israel in order to galvanize all the groups into one nation which factually doesn't exist. And this is why when you establish a state on a clan, it has the greatest chance this clan and state will be rather peaceful.
Dr. Kedar spoke to INN from a protest outside the Jordanian embassy in Israel calling for an end to the discrimination against Jews maintained by the Jordanian Waqf on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
"Jordan acts as if Jordan is the sovereign country in Jerusalem. I think the time has come to show and to tell the Jordanians, 'Hey guys, Jerusalem is Jewish Jerusalem was the Jewish capital 16 centuries before Islam came to the world. and you should honor the Israeli-Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem. If you want to be in charge of the mosque on the Temple Mount, let it be. Yet the Temple Mount is under Israeli sovereignty and only Israeli sovereignty," he concluded.