The killing of Ismail Haniyeh was a justified action, not an escalation by Israel.

Terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh is dead. Good riddance!

The Hamas honcho was killed in an airstrike in Tehran, where he was visiting for the inauguration of supremo Ali Khamenei’s new puppet president. 

And instead of the cheers that would greet his demise in a sane world, commentators are already pointing their fingers at Israel (widely thought to be behind the airstrike) and, incredibly, accusing the Jewish state of escalation. 

“Killing of a Hamas leader heightens fears of a regional war,” blared a New York Times headline. 

His death “threatens further chaos” in the Middle East, per the reliably Jew-hating Washington Post. 

On and on the journos blather. 

But those blaming Israel have it exactly wrong. 

Haniyeh, the killers he commanded and their patrons in Iran are the ones causing war and chaos.

They’re the escalators. 

(Helped along by a White House that refuses to firmly back Israel.)

Not Israel, which — as so many conveniently forget — is the victim, not the aggressor.

Israel has been engaged in a humane and justified counterattack against Hamas, Hezbollah and other antagonists in a conflict that began on Oct. 7. 

An unprovoked series of atrocities committed in open aggression by Haniyeh’s band of murderers. 

Given the opportunity, there was no way Israel could pass on taking out Haniyeh. 

He was not only responsible for the deaths of nearly 1,200 Israelis; he helped lead an organization devoted to genocide against the Jewish people.

His death was a strategic necessity for Israel, and a moral one as well.

And remember that Haniyeh accomplished his monstrous work as he hid like a coward in Doha and lived the high life while using his own people as human shields, with utter indifference. 

The man was a terrorist: cold-hearted, bloody-handed, without remorse or pity.

He was killed in the world’s leading terrorist state, Iran, the home of his chief sponsors. 

That his death generated not loud cries of approval but a new crop of equivocators devoted to his defense is beyond obscene.