The mastermind of the October 7th tragedy, Yahya Sinwar, was fortuitously killed. Other than the terminally ignorant, this is recognized as both a great thing and a necessity for the future of the middle east. Of course, it wasn’t necessary before, as so many clamored for a ceasefire while Sinwar remained alive and ready to do it again and again, a detail that didn’t seem to prevent fantasies of peace. But hey, now that he’s dead, it’s over, right?

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the death of the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. It creates the possibility not only of ending the Gaza war, returning Israeli hostages and bringing relief to the people of Gaza. It creates the possibility for the biggest step toward a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians since Oslo, as well as normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia — which means pretty much the entire Muslim world.

It’s that big.

But, but, but.

It’s got to suck to be Tom Friedman these days. His calls for a ceasefire have been proven wrong over and over, as each new fact rendered his deeply-considered analysis for how peace can be achieved without consideration of the nasty detail that it takes two to tango irretrievably flawed. But now that Sinwar is dead, he digs the hole deeper.

The death of Sinwar alone is not the sufficient condition to end this Gaza war and put Israelis and Palestinians on a pathway to a better future. Yes, Sinwar and Hamas always rejected a two-state solution and were committed to the violent destruction of the Jewish state. No one paid a bigger price for that than the Palestinians of Gaza. But while his death was necessary for a next step to be possible, it was never going to be everything.

As this was obvious before to anyone who wasn’t being deliberately blind, surely Friedman will take the next logical step. With the death of Sinwar, the devastation of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist leadership, the evisceration of much of the terrorists “army,” none of which would have happened had Israel walked away so as not to harm Gazans as was the mantra before, circumstances have finally come around to now being the time for the remaining soldiers and leaders of Hamas to admit defeat, lay down its weapons and release the hostages. But, but, but.

The sufficient condition is that Israel have a leader and a governing coalition ready to step up to the opportunity Sinwar’s death has created. To put it bluntly, can Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel live up to his Churchillian self-image and go along with something that he has previously rejected? That is the participation of a reformed West Bank Palestinian Authority in an international peacekeeping force that would take over Gaza in the place of the Sinwar-led Hamas.

No, there is no call for the terrorists to stop being terrorists. There is no call to release the hostages. There is no call to stop firing missiles into Israel. No, the only call here is for Israel to indulge the next level fantasy of leaving the remaining terrorists intact for Iran to rebuild and capitulate to the demands of people like Friedman, even if it will satisfy neither the terrorists nor the Palestinians.

And how will this fantasy happen? The Palestinian Authority, which has proven itself irretrievably weak and corrupt, will magically reinvent itself into a serious and respected government for the Palestinians, even though it’s never demonstrated any capacity whatsoever to do so.

A reformed Palestinian Authority, with massive Arab and international funds, would attempt to restore its credibility in Gaza, and the credibility of its core Fatah organization in Palestinian politics — and sideline the remnants of Hamas.

How making this happen becomes Israel’s problem is a mystery that not even a Nobel Prize winning economist can solve. But it is because . . . reasons.

Or the death of Yahya Sinwar, coupled with the achievements of eviscerating terrorists who serve Iran and seek only the total destruction of Israel could continue until the terrorists lay down their arms, release the hostages and end their reign of terror on both Israel and the Palestinian people. Once that happens, a future for Palestine is possible. It’s not possible as long as the primary goal is terror, destruction and death.