The Hindu : BRUTAL AND SENSELESS

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

BRUTAL AND SENSELESS

ISRAEL'S ASSASSINATION ON Monday of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual guide of the Islamic Resistance Movement, was an act of utter barbarism and recklessness. This particular Palestinian militant organisation, better known by its Arabic acronym, Hamas, has no doubt resorted to the condemnable tactic of killing civilians through suicide bombings. While the killing of innocents cannot be justified in any manner, the actions of the Palestinian militants must be assessed against the backdrop of the overall situation in which they operate. They are carrying out a grossly unequal struggle against a powerful and ruthless Israel that does not restrict the degree of force it uses against a people it keeps under colonial occupation. Seven other Palestinians besides Sheikh Yassin were killed in the missile attack. Israel had tried to assassinate him last September when it dropped a 550-pound bomb on an apartment complex in the Gaza Strip. While suicide bombings draw instantaneous attention worldwide, the truth is that a far larger number of Palestinians have died in the violence visited on them by the Israelis. These deaths have occurred in the course of direct military action such as missile attacks on crowded streets and on account of the routines of the occupation such as roadblocks that prevent the critically ill from being hospitalised in time.

The killing of Sheikh Yassin was senseless even from a tactical point of view. He no doubt crafted a political ideology that calls for the destruction of Israel and he did extol the cult of the suicide bomber. But, it is difficult to believe the Israeli claim that the murder of this septuagenarian paraplegic will make a material difference to the levels of militancy. To the contrary, the assassination is more likely to exacerbate the violence since all the Palestinian militant factions have sworn vengeance. The considerable following that Hamas has at the grassroots level will only grow with their leader becoming the foremost Palestinian to be martyred in recent times. This outrage will further undermine the Palestinian Authority and reduce its capability to curb the militants among its people. Until now President Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia had relied on Sheikh Yassin to restrain the militants during the fleeting periods of peace. The spiritual guide had usually succeeded in ensuring that his followers were not the first to break a truce. Following his assassination the militants have declared that they will not be bound by self-imposed restraints.

Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who closely supervised the early morning attack, bears prime responsibility for this atrocity. However, the United States is almost as guilty since it has persistently condoned the brutal methods that the Sharon Government has used against the Palestinians. The promise that once existed of a peaceful West Asian future in which two nations would exist side by side has withered because Washington could not shake off its partiality for Israel. Although the American leadership knows very well that the injustice perpetrated on the Palestinians is a root cause of Islamist extremism, it refuses to address the issue even as it prates about its campaign against terror. The U.S. might soon have reason to regret its inhumane attitude to the Palestinians. Hamas not only condemned Washington for having made Sheikh Yassin's murder possible by extending unstinted support to Israel but also declared that all Muslims would be honoured to join in the retaliation.

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