The assassination this morning on Iranian soil of the political head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, reminds us of the line Michael Corleone utters in “The Godfather” — “Barzini is dead. So is Phillip Tattaglia. Moe Greene. Stracci. Cuneo. Today I settled all family business.” We don’t intend any inapt parallels. Nor do we mean to make light of the war of retaliation that Iran is now threatening. We do want to suggest that what happened today is a moment to mark.

The strike signals just how seriously Israel takes its vow to extirpate the Gaza-based terror group in the wake of the October 7 attacks. To skeptics who suggest that Hamas is an “idea,” and “can’t be eliminated,” we say, tell that to Black September. That is — or was — the Palestinian terrorist organization that was among the Jewish state’s most active foes in the 1970s and 1980s. Its most high profile attack came in 1972 at the Munich Olympics.

After a protracted hostage crisis that played out on live television around the world, 11 Israelis were murdered, including six coaches and five athletes. In response, Israel launched the covert operation known as “Wrath of God,” vowing to eliminate Black September entirely. Over the following decade it did exactly that, hunting down its leaders across the globe and assassinating them. The operation was fictionalized in Steven Spielberg’s movie “Munich.”

If there’s a message in Haniyeh’s killing, it’s that Israel has lost none of its righteous resolve. Hamas leaders will have to weigh the prospect that if they kill Israel’s innocents, they themselves will be dealt their just desserts. The cemeteries may be full of irreplaceable people. Yet leadership, institutional memory, experience and terrorist knowhow, and  global connections — all will be hard to replace quickly. The deaths of top leaders sets back the terrorists. 

Mark it well. Hezbollah’s top military figure, Fouad Shukr, who was killed by Israel last night, was named by our State Department as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” back in 1983. That’s when a bomb killed 241 Americans in the Marines barracks at Beirut. The United States put a price  — $5 million — on Shukr’s head for that and his wider role in Hezbollah. It’s going to be hard for the doves to complain about the attack that did him in.

Hamas’s top military leader, Mohammed Deif, is — or was — also a specially designated global terrorist. Israel is confident it killed him two weeks ago. Scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed at Tehran in 2020, setting back Iran’s nuclear program significantly. President Obama used drones to kill ISIS leaders in Syria and, arguably his greatest national security success, also ended Osama bin Laden’s career. President Trump struck down Qassem Soleimani of Iran. 

In the Godfather, Don Corleone’s purpose in telling Carlo Rizzi that his allies are dead was to get the rat to tell him who had recruited him to act against the Corleones. Similarly, Prime Minister Netanyhu could appeal to Hamas’s chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, to release hostages, including Americans, that he still holds. Look, Mr. Netanyahu could say, all your cronies are dead. Like Moses, he could tell Sinwar, let my people go or face new plagues.