‘Formidable enemy’ Sinwar joins exclusive club in rare TIME cover
Slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar has joined Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in being remembered as one of the worst foes humanity has faced in the magazine’s history.
Slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar has joined Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in being remembered in death with a “Red X” in a rare cover by Time Magazine, to illustrate the end of a “formidable enemy”.
The usage of the red X over the terrorist’s portrait on TIME’s November cover has only been done five other times in the paper’s history, first used in May 1945 after the death of Nazi leader Hitler.
According to time, the usage of the red X symbolises the “end of a long struggle against a formidable enemy”.
Since 1945, it has been used for covers depicting Hitler, dictator Hussein at the start of the Iraq War in 2003, the death of al-Qaeda Iraq leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi in 2006, and that of 9/11 mastermind bin Laden’s in 2011.
The red X was most recently used in December 2020 but to mark the end of a historic first year of the Covid pandemic, “but not the end of the battle (against the) deadly virus”, the magazine said then.
Terrorist Sinwar now joins that exclusive list, and it comes amid the international and domestic reaction to Israel Defence Forces killing the Hamas leader on Thursday in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Hamas chief’s death marked “the beginning of the end” of the conflict, but warned his country’s mission was not yet complete.
In Australia, Anthony Albanese said the killing was a “significant moment” and a “vital turning point” in the conflict, and he hoped Sinwar’s death would “break the cycle of violence” and bring an end to the Israel-Hamas war.
Published online by TIME on Friday, the November cover – illustrated by prolific American artist Tim O’Brien – depicts Sinwar’s face imposed with a distinctive red X, which Time said was of a “long tradition saved for some of humanity's worst foes”.
Speaking in 2011, when the magazine published a similar cover after United States Navy SEALs killed al-Qaeda leader bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Time’s then-editor Richard Stengel explained the choice.
He said then: “... In a curious way, his (bin Laden’s) death brings him back front and centre, if only for a moment. It is the end of an era in some ways, but not the end of our struggle against terrorism”.
A black X has been used on the cover once, to mark the end of World War II, crossing out an illustration of Japan’s rising sun.
On Friday, Hamas confirmed Sinwar’s death, but said it would not release the remaining hostages taken on October 7 and that the death of its “brother and leader… would only increase the strength and resolve of our resistance”.
The Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers welcomed the terrorist’s death, but urged Israel to use it as a springboard to ending the war.
Peter Dutton said it was a “great day” for the world as his home affairs spokesman James Paterson declared Sinwar would still be alive if Israel had heeded the Albanese government’s demands months ago for an “immediate ceasefire”.
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