In an EconoLog post 10 months ago, I commented on a The Wall Street Journal reported that Yahya Sinwar understood “the Israeli mentality” after spending nearly twenty years in prison in that country. He was the leader of Hamas who is believed to have planned the operation that killed 1200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages, most of them civilians, on October 7, 2023. I suggested that, if someone plans to plan such a thing, he should understand the way it works. individualism rather than focusing on certain collective mental thinking (“Methodological Individualism and the Hamas Ruler,” December 14, 2023). I wrote:
If Hamas ruler Yahya Sinwar had learned methodological humanism, things would have been different. He might have been tempted by a broader philosophy of individualism and might have managed his “people” in Gaza better, including not using them as human shields and not spending public money on the tunnel. But even if he just knew how to do it his personality, his life may not be on the line right now.
Methodological individualism is important for understanding social groups (Israeli society, for example) and organizations (the Israeli government). There were many chances that political incentives on the other side (and in Iran) would lead to a strong military response, which would be dangerous for the poor Gazans and for him. Motivations always depend on individual motivation. We weren’t sure that the response would respect the proper moral standards vis-à-vis civilians, but that was probably not part of the terrorists’ concern; it should be part of the individual concern, however.
Sinwar, who eventually became the supreme leader of Hamas, was killed by the IDF on Wednesday.
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A surreal and satirical vision of Yahya Sinwar sleeping in a state
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