Leader of Hamas Killed by Missile in Israeli Strike
By JAMES BENNET

Published: March 22, 2004


JERUSALEM, Monday, March 22 — Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader and founder of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, was killed early Monday by an Israeli missile that struck him as he left a mosque in Gaza City, his family and Hamas officials said. They said at least two bodyguards had been killed with him.

Sheik Yassin, a symbol to Palestinians of resistance to Israel and to Israelis of Palestinian terrorism, was by far the most significant Palestinian militant killed by Israel in more than three years of conflict.

Black smoke curled over Gaza City as Palestinians began burning tires in the streets and demonstrators chanted for revenge. Mosque loudspeakers blared a message across Gaza of mourning for Sheik Yassin in the name of Hamas and another militant group, Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

The Israeli military confirmed the killing, saying in a statement that the sheik was "responsible for numerous murderous terror attacks, resulting in the deaths of many civilians, both Israeli and foreign."

http://nytimes.com

So, any guesses on what's likely to happen next?

World leaders condemn killing.

What will happen next? At a guess an upsurge of suicide bombings in Israel.

Having seen the results of earlier threads about the Israeli conflict, I hope we don't have a similar pro/anti argument as that vein has probably been exhausted here, and could also get personal. I didn't join in any of them, though I read them all, partly because anything I would have responded with was usually done by someone else for me, and partly because I think this is a problem that can't be solved by normal citizens, and possibly not by anyone due to the polar nature of both sides.
If anyone wants to pin me down on a side I think many people know I'm Jewish, which means I have relatives and friends in Israel, and have visited a few times when things were far more cordial, including a tour of the West Bank. I know the Jews and Arabs can live together peacefully, I saw it myself and have been told it has been the case, but at the moment nothing anyone does apart from destroy Israel and its population will stop the current wave of attacks.
I said I didn't want to see another argument, and now may well start one myself, but I know it's preferred to know where someone's 'coming from' rather than post from an unknown position, so I put my head on the line.

I have no idea why Israel chose to kill the Hamas leader at this particular time, but it certainly has fueled threats of revenge:

Dire Portent Hangs Over Funeral in Gaza
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 23, 2004


GAZA CITY, March 22 -- When Sheik Ahmed Yassin returned triumphantly to Gaza City in 1997 after eight years in an Israeli prison, thousands of flag-waving Palestinians carried the wheelchair-bound spiritual leader of Hamas above their heads while throngs of adoring followers stretched to touch him.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians escorted Yassin's body Monday in a final procession through the streets of Gaza -- accompanied by hundreds of flags, blasts from automatic weapons and loudspeakers booming vows of revenge -- after an early morning Israeli missile strike killed the 67-year-old cleric as he was being wheeled home from morning prayers at a local mosque. Seven other Palestinians died in the attack.

The jubilation of Yassin's return nearly seven years ago stood in harsh contrast to his farewell, although Palestinians called both portentous for the conflict with Israel.

"It's obvious to me that in killing Ahmed Yassin, Sharon created five, six, 10, 100 Ahmed Yassins," said Eyad Sarraj, a psychiatrist and well-known human rights activist in Gaza, referring to the Israeli prime minister. "Sharon has raised his status to martyr and saint."

..."We are here to share in the funeral of a man who is like the Prophet," said Hesham Alaywah, 37, whose 4-year-old son sat on his shoulders wearing the uniform of a Hamas fighter and waving a toy pistol. "I have two kids, and I hope they will be Hamas fighters. If I lose them, it will be easier on me than the assassination of Sheik Yassin."...

..."I think everybody loved him," Hossam Ishtwi, 30, an English teacher, said while standing outside the mosque. "He established many services to help poor Palestinians, so we are all here to show Israel our feelings that they committed a big crime against us, and now we have the right to do anything to them."...

http://washingtonpost.com
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And the U.S. appears to have been caught off guard by Israel's action:

March 23, 2004
DIPLOMACY
A Day When the White House Reversed Stand on the Killing
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

WASHINGTON, March 22 — The Bush administration, in the middle of its own campaign to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and others it considers terrorists, found itself on Monday in the position of being pressed by world opinion to criticize as "deeply troubling" Israel's assassination of the leader of Hamas.
In a startling sequence of events unusual even for the ups and downs of Middle East policy, the administration began the day by avoiding direct criticism of Israel after the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin in Gaza City.
Instead, Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, said in a morning television interview that Hamas was a terrorist organization, that Sheik Yassin had been involved in terrorist actions and that it was "very important that everyone step back and try now to be calm in the region."
Only later in the afternoon did the administration shift tone and criticize Israel's action as harmful to the cause of bringing peace to the region.
"We're deeply troubled by this morning's events in Gaza," said Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, adding that all sides, including Israel, should now "exercise maximum restraint" and "do everything possible to avoid any further actions that would make more difficult the restoration of calm."
An administration official acknowledged that a change of tone was chosen only after a torrent of criticism erupted throughout the Arab world, and was then joined by condemnations from the European Union and Britain, Washington's closest ally in the Iraq war.
Those officials said the Hamas leader's death had jolted administration officials just as they were accelerating plans for a highly visible and politically significant visit by Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, to Washington, perhaps next month.
The Sharon visit is intended to work out the details of Israel's plan to withdraw militarily from Gaza and to pull out more than 7,000 settlers, and to carry out similar but unspecified withdrawals from at least parts of the West Bank....
http://nytimes.com
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It does seem that Israel did exactly what the U.S. is trying to do in hunting down and killing the leaders of Al Qaeda. And the U.S. also considered this man a terrorist.
Should the U.S. bow to pressure from the rest of the world, and criticize Israel for this action? Has Israel left the U.S. between a rock and a hard place in terms of responding to this killing?

You can certainly draw a moral parallel with Bin Laden - this man was heavily involved in the deaths of innocent civilians, and deserved what he got, looked at in the abstract.

However, there is no parallel whatsoever in terms of the probable consequences of the assassination. Killing Bin Laden would be a genuine practical blow in the US's efforts to protect itself, and unlikely to convert significant numbers to his insane cause. Killing Sheik Yassin will I fear have the opposite effect.

If the US wants to take a purely moral stance, without regard for the consequences for its own safety, then it should by all means support Israel's ill-advised action. It's not the stance I would take.

Argh-what I tried didn't work.

LA, I moved your reply to Controversial Issues as I believe it would be better suited for there. For anyone who is wondering, he started a thread about whether or not these types of people should be killed. Please don't reply to this thread on that topic, but go to LordAndry's topic in Controversial Issues.

Thanks!

Another killer to be crossed off the list. I don`t see how the Palistinians could get any angrier than they were one year,ten years or twenty years ago. Everyone with access to a television has seen them in a frenzy waving their guns around at one time or another and sending their children off to be blown up.

I think that says it all. You can't want to wipe out Israel 'a bit more' now it's happened, can you?

I just read a quote from him when alive saying 'Islam is against killing civilians, but Israelis aren't civilians. We can't rest until Israel is an Islamic state'.
Can you make them any more extreme than that?
And it doesn't matter whether someone is blind or disabled either, as their words and influence are just as powerful and still incite those who can carry them out. No defence to a crime ever existed for physical disability and incitement to murder is worse in some ways than the followers who carry them out.
(Did I say I was going to keep out of this one... the pull was too great!)