When Yahya Sinwar was martyred 40 days ago I couldn't write anything because I felt too sad. I never watched him die because I didn't want to watch him die, I like to think he is still alive, obtaining provision. But I know the story of his death, like I know the story of Hector of Troy, or my namesake Indrajit of Lanka, or of many warriors that died warrior's death. Sinwar died a good death, an honorable death, he went down an eternal G. It is like the Jesus said, “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

I think of that whole verse, the distilled commandment of Jesus, revered as a prophet in Islam and thus by Sinwar. Jesus said,

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

It is as Che Guevara said, “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.” It is as Sinwar himself described himself in a 2018 interview with Francesca Borri,

Sinwar: I am not the leader of a militia, I'm from Hamas. And that's it. I am the Gaza leader of Hamas, of something much more complex than a militia—a national liberation movement. And my main duty is to act in the interest of my people: to defend it and its right to freedom and independence. You are a war correspondent. Do you like war?

Borri: Not at all.

S: And so why should I? Whoever knows what war is, doesn't like war.

B: But you have been fighting for all your life.

S: And I am not saying I won't fight anymore, indeed. I am saying that I don't want war anymore. I want the end of the siege. You walk to the beach at sunset, and you see all these teenagers on the shore chatting and wondering what the world looks like across the sea. What life looks like. It's breaking. And should break everybody. I want them free.

B: Borders have been basically sealed-off for 11 years. Gaza doesn't even have water anymore, only sea water. How is living here?

S: What do you think? 55 percent of the population is under 15. We are not speaking of terrorists, we are speaking of kids. They have no political affiliation. They have just fear. I want them free.

...

B: What kind of life do you hope for your children?

A life as Palestinians, of course. Head high. Always. Despite it all, I hope they will be strong, and keep on struggling till the day they get freedom and independence. Because I want my kids to dream of becoming doctors not to treat only the wounded, but cancer patients. Like all of the kids of the world. I want them to be safely Palestinians, so that they can be much more than Palestinians.

Sinwar was always motivated by a deep love for his people and sustained by the deep love of his people. This is something the individualist and transactional West cannot understand, that people can have higher motivation than self motivation, be commanded by a higher authority than self gratification. This is what befuddled the Romans about early Christians, that many Christians rushed towards martyrdom. Crucifixion was supposed to be not just a torture but a humiliation, reserved for the lowest of the low, but to Christians it became their symbol (though I think this would still give Jesus the willies when he comes back).

The Roman Empire martyred Christians mercilessly for centuries (then martyred people for not being Christian). Just as the American Empire is mass martyring Muslims today (Barron Trump will doubtless convert to Islam one day). God sends us messengers telling us to love each other, and the kings of this world hate it. They fight them until they join them, then go on corrupting and hating that way. It is, as my historical thesis goes, same shit, different day.

In one definition of insanity, the corrupt leaders of White Empire keep assassinating Resistance leaders and the Resistance keeps getting stronger. Meanwhile Empire's leaders are visibly dying in office, projecting nothing but weakness and cowardice. It is as the also martyred Hamas leader Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri said,

Our heroic martyrs, when they are from the leadership, and from the first ranks, they awaken all the ranks of our people to be part of the Resistance. This is the indication of sincerity: when the leaders and first ranks come forward to martyrdom. We affirm in a categorical and definitive way that our blood and souls are not greater nor dearer than that of any martyr. We are equal. The martyr that preceded us by one day is better than us. Better than us.

This is not suicidal because the self here is a higher being, the society. The threat is genocide, which people must resist or die in together, there are no individuals in a massacre like this. As Al-Arouri said, “The collective consciousness, the subconscious, and the constants of our people return time and again to the true path of dealing with the occupiers, which is resistance.” Along this path many will die, so that many can live. It is unfortunate that the Carbon Crusaders chose to make their fortunes this way, but if you want true liberation from colonization, they always make you pay.

As the somehow still living Hamas leader Khaled Mashal said,

Dear sister, nations are not easily liberated. The Russians sacrificed 30 million people in World War II, in order to liberate it from Hitler's attack. The Vietnamese sacrificed 3.5 million people until they defeated the Americans. Afghanistan sacrificed millions of martyrs to defeat the USSR and then the US. The Algerian people sacrificed six million martyrs over 130 years. The Palestinian people are just like any other nation. No nation is liberated without sacrifices.

Thus I return to Yahya Sinwar, who gave the ultimate sacrifice which is yet ordinary among his people. To die fighting, laying down his life for his friends. The 'Israelis' broadcast his execution, but Jews of all people should know that slaughtering Palestinian resistance in public just makes them live forever as martyrs. It is as Sinwar said in his work of fiction, The Thorn and the Carnation, laboriously smuggled out of prison during the 22 years he spent tormented there. Sinwar wrote,

Ibrahim and Hassan continued preparing more of them, listening to the news and those calls while they smiled. Ibrahim said in wonder at these people, “What do they want? They want us to be killed by the occupation forces and do nothing but wail and raise white flags and beg for mercy from the butcher who knows no mercy.”

Work, beloved ones, work, for this is a jihad... victory or martyrdom. We must make weapons, however simple, and strive to improve them every day to increase their destructive power and range, and strike the enemy who possesses all those military capabilities. Despite the simplicity of our weapons and our limited means, with God's help, we will create a new equation in the conflict, establishing a balance of terror and deterrence. They bombard us, so we bombard them. May God be pleased with Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, who said: “By God, if I found nothing but dust, I would fight them with it.” And we, thank God, have much more than dust. We must fight them with everything we possess and always strive to enhance our capabilities.

Thus is is fitting, and I think conscious, that Sinwar died the way he did. Firstly, he died seated on a couch, echoing his defiant photo after 'Israel' bombed his own house. Second, he threw a stick at a drone, echoing Umar Ibn Al-Khattab's saying, “By God, if I found nothing but dust, I would fight them with it.” This communication was all contained in his death video, which the 'Israelis' thought was a humiliation. Oh ye of little faith. Sinwar's life and death were redolent with deep symbolism, such that 'Sinwar's stick' has now become a rallying cry across the region. A warrior poet cannot have a better death than this. His death was a poem, rhyming with all the martyrs throughout history.

The fact is that Yahya Sinwar defeated 'Israel' on October 7th. 'Israel' as an independent entity fell that day and never recovered. All the king's horsepower and all their military men have rushed to the region, but they cannot put humpty together again. 'Israel' has been under direct imperial administration ever since. The non-entity has become a non-entity. America and Britain have flown 80% of reconnaissance flights over occupied Palestine and contribute almost all of the weaponry and funding. You bought it, you bought it, to extend Colin Powell's Pottery Barn metaphor to its absurd conclusion. Sinwar thus died facing the final boss of colonialism itself, America, with 'Israeli' serving as mere delivery boys for American weapons.

'Israel' was always White Empire's conscript colony near the oil, a place to deport unwanted Jews rather than simply resettling them in Germany or accepting them to the United States. Now the colony has fallen and would not survive a week without constant intervention. America owns this genocide and the Resistance—knowing history—is paying the bitter price of freedom from these guys. As everybody knows by now—from Vietnam to Afghanistan—the Americans will kill your children, they will raze your villages—but they will eventually tire and leave. Sinwar did not live to see it, but he died so that his children may not just be Palestinians but more than Palestinians. That they might be free.

Sinwar died but he did it. He did it. Things are working out as he said. As Sinwar said, when he could go outside,

Within a limited period of months, I estimate it will not exceed a year, we will make the occupation have two options. Either we force it to implement international law, respect international resolutions, withdraw from the West Bank and Jerusalem and dismantle the settlements. release the hostages and return the refugees, either we and the world force it to do these matters and achieve the establishment of a Palestinian state on the lands occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem... Or we place this occupation in a state of contradiction and collision with the entire international will and isolate it and end its state of integration in the region and in the entire world and the state of collapse that occurred on all fronts of resistance and on all fronts that occurred during past years.

What Sinwar is saying (that people misinterpret) is that there is either a two-state solution along 1976 borders or a one-state solution of Palestine. That 'Israel' will fall into a state of contradiction and collapse and disintegrate. Which is precisely what's happening. 'Israel' chose door number two (naked genocide) which leads to the condemnation of all nations, preserved only temporarily by the coercion of a dying hegemon (America). 'Israel' cannot exist in this state much longer and will either fall on its own or fall when America falls, whichever comes first. This echoes the martyred founder of Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who said, “to be precise, I say that by 2027, there will be no Israel.” These men both died, but their strategy, backed by heroic acts, lives on. They believed it while it was unbelievable, but who today believes that 'Israel' can go on like this? They got a country because genocide and they're losing it because genocide, they're going out the way they came.

Historically speaking, it's already over. In the historic cycle, which is deeper than the news cycle, the White Empire has already fallen. America today is running around the world like a T-Rex with its head cut off, still capable of stomping but not going anywhere but down. America is going to hell and Sinwar is surely with Allah now.

So, as the Resistance says over every martyr (as the Allah said), “And do not think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision.” According to 'Israeli' autopsies, Sinwar died with nothing in his stomach, he hadn't eaten for days. I like to think he is full now, in gardens with rivers flowing underneath. This I, in my own deeply inadequate way, pray.

Men within the resistance (I think it was Al-Arouri) say that they don't fear dying in battle, they fear dying of a heart attack or getting hit by a bus, because that would shame them. And Sinwar certainly died fighting, throwing dust when all he had was dust, after laying the ideological, political, and technological foundation that will see White Empire crushed this decade. Sinwar chose his life and he chose his death. A man cannot give more than this nor can he receive greater honor. Greater love has no man than this. To lay down his life for his friends.

I've collected the Resistance speakers and texts referenced here in a book called Reading Resistance, that you can download here: indi.ca/books