An what does the Economist have to say about this assassination?
Check out the pic on the web page!
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2533990
(don't you just want to pinch that old bastard's cheeks?)
A wave of fury at Yassin’s killing
Mar 24th 2004
From The Economist Global Agenda
Israel’s killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, has been met by Palestinian threats of revenge, UN and European condemnation, and American denials of involvement
ISRAEL has been trying for some time to kill Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the elderly and disabled spiritual leader of Hamas, one of the main Palestinian militant groups. Last September, Mr Yassin was slightly hurt when an Israeli bomb blew apart the building he had just left. But at daybreak on Monday March 22nd, Israel finally succeeded in eliminating the man it accused of overseeing attacks that have killed more than 350 Israelis since the start of the Palestinian intifada in 2000. Mr Yassin and seven others were killed by missiles launched from Israeli helicopters, as he and his sons left a mosque after early-morning prayers in Gaza City. The assassination came eight days after Palestinian militants from Gaza had killed 10 Israelis in a suicide bombing in the port of Ashdod, to which Israel responded by stepping up its attacks on militant groups’ leaders.
The killing of Mr Yassin provoked furious denunciations from Muslim countries. The European Union condemned what it called an “extra-judicial killing” and Kofi Annan, the UN's secretary-general, said the attack broke international law. In the hours after the killing, Palestinians poured on to the streets in Gaza and the West Bank to express their anger. More than 200,000 mourners joined the funeral procession that carried his body to a Gaza cemetery, according to the Reuters news agency—many of them armed and masked.
Hamas and other militant groups vowed rapid, and bloody, revenge. On Tuesday, Hamas announced that two hardliners had been chosen to lead the group following Mr Yassin's death: Khaled Meshaal, who is believed to be living in exile in Syria, would be supreme leader; and Abdel-Aziz Rantisi would become Hamas's leader in Gaza, its main power base. Both men have narrowly survived Israeli attempts at assassination. Mr Meshaal said he hoped his militants would kill Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister. On Tuesday, Israeli armoured vehicles entered northern Gaza after militants fired missiles into southern Israel. The next day, Israeli forces entered the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza and bulldozed homes that overlooked Jewish settlements.
America has denied accusations by some Palestinian groups that it had been involved in, or had advance knowledge of, Mr Yassin's assassination. President George Bush's spokesman said America was “deeply troubled” by it but he stopped short of condemning it. With polls in Tuesday's newspapers showing that around 60% of Israelis support the killing, Mr Sharon's government was unrepentant, saying that all militant leaders were being targeted.
When Mr Yassin co-founded Hamas in 1987, the Islamic group’s aim was not just to end Israel’s occupation of the Gaza strip and West Bank (which had both been seized in a war 20 years earlier) but also to destroy Israel itself. In January, he signalled that he was ready in principle for a truce. But Israel dismissed his gesture, doubting its sincerity, and kept his name on its list of targets.
Besides avenging the Ashdod bombing, the assassination of Mr Yassin may have been a show of strength by Israel, ahead of its proposed pull-out from most of the Gaza strip. Last month, Mr Sharon announced some details of his plan to withdraw unilaterally the Jewish settlers—and the large contingent of troops that guard them—from most of the strip. Some Israelis criticised the plan, saying it would encourage Hamas and other militants to conclude that they had succeeded in forcing Israel out of Gaza (in the same way as militants’ attacks had forced Israel to abandon its “security zone” in southern Lebanon in 2000). By showing that Israel is still capable of hitting at the militants’ leaders in Gaza, Mr Sharon may have been sending a message that Israel is not retreating under fire.
Since Mr Sharon first announced his intention to “unilaterally disengage” from most of Gaza last December, his plans have suffered several reworkings, with some in his right-wing coalition refusing to accept a retreat from the settlements and military chiefs questioning the wisdom of a pull-out. Mr Sharon has also been seeking American support for Israel hanging on to several settlements in the West Bank in return for withdrawing from Gaza. Recent weeks have seen intensive shuttling between Washington, Tel Aviv and Cairo, as the Bush administration questioned Israel on the details of the plan, and Egypt tried to draw up a security strategy for the Palestinian Authority (PA) once Israeli troops had left Gaza.
The killing of Mr Yassin is a great gust in the PA’s house of cards. While it nominally governs the Gaza strip and its 1.2m Arab inhabitants, Israeli incursions and checkpoints have weakened the grip of the PA’s security forces on the territory. As the PA has become riven by factional infighting, support for Hamas has steadily grown—in Gaza, its influence now exceeds the PA’s. To try to revive the tattered “road map” peace plan, the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, had been trying to persuade the Palestinian militants to agree to a ceasefire. But the militants had demanded in return that Israel halt its assassinations of their leaders and fighters. Now, with Mr Yassin’s death, Mr Qurei’s hopes of a ceasefire seem dashed. Meanwhile, Hamas seems likely to grow stronger, not weaker, on the wings of its newly martyred leader.
