TheMediaLine
WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE TO CHANGE THE MISINFORMATION
about the
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR?
About the Killing of Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri (R) sits with Osama bin Laden during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir (not pictured), Nov. 8, 2001. (Hamid Mir/Creative Commons)

About the Killing of Zawahiri

Al-Ahram, Egypt, August 5

On the one-year anniversary of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, which left America’s global reputation scarred and tarnished, we woke up to the first successful American strike against terrorism: the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of al-Qaida. Zawahiri assumed his duties in 2011 following the killing of the former leader of the organization, Osama bin Laden, also in Pakistan. The two operations carried out by the United States on Pakistani soil, the first to kill bin Laden in 2011 and the second to kill Zawahiri last week, were quite similar. The first took place under President Obama while the latter took place under President Biden. Despite the American commitment to find and eliminate these terrorists, there is no doubt that the chief victims of radical jihad have been Arabs. Indeed, our region has suffered the pain of terrorism to a far greater, longer, and harsher degree. I remember when Ayman al-Zawahiri first came into the public eye in 1981 when he was put on trial for the assassination of Anwar Sadat. The Egyptian Islamic Jihad stood behind the killing that took place at a military parade. Zawahiri was sentenced to three years in prison and, following his release, he left Egypt for Afghanistan, where he planned his return. He believed that by getting rid of Sadat, the Egyptian hero of war and peace, Islamic Jihad would be able to establish its foothold in Egypt. Ever since that date, the Egyptian authorities have been enduring an endless confrontation, both overt and covert, with these terrorist forces. Islamic Jihad repeated its crimes in 1993 when it killed over 1,200 Egyptians and attempted to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak. Consequently, an Egyptian military court sentenced Zawahiri to death in absentia. The Egyptian Armed Forces also confronted Zawahiri’s forces who sought to establish an Islamic emirate in the Sinai Peninsula. So now the question to be asked is: Will the curtain of terrorism finally come down with the death of both bin Laden and Zawahiri? I can’t imagine that will be the case because the war on terror has multiple dimensions, many of which have nothing to do with the use of force. What we need to defeat terrorism are extensive operations that take place away from the battlefield and, most importantly, away from American television screens. –Osama Saraya (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)

TheMediaLine
WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE TO CHANGE THE MISINFORMATION
about the
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR?
Personalize Your News
Upgrade your experience by choosing the categories that matter most to you.
Click on the icon to add the category to your Personalize news
Browse Categories and Topics