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 Tuesday, March 23, 2004

  ISRAEL Raises the Stakes on TERROR by Assassinating Hamas Leader

Other Breaking News
  • New poll in Israel shows majority of Israelis back Yassin assassination; 43% support killing Arafat: In yet another indication of radicalism in Israeli society, an evening poll conducted Monday by the mass circulation Maariv daily showed that 61% of the population supports Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. Read here for more

  • Al-Jazeera web poll says 61% for attacking Israelis abroad:Following the assassination Monday of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Arabic-language website of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel posted an opinion poll asking readers the question, "Do you support that Palestinians transfer their [reprisal] operations outside Palestine [against Israeli interests and targets abroad]?" Read here for more


  • "The Israeli air force this morning killed the mastermind of all evil, Ahmed Yassin, who was a preacher of death." - Chief Israeli military spokeswoman Brig. Gen. Ruth Yaron.
    It does not take a rocket scientist to predict the assassination of Hamas Leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin by the Israeli Army will lead to more suicide bombings and bloodshed on innocent Israelis.

    It is unthinkable that Ariel Sharon does NOT know the consequences of his assassination orders to potentially befall on innocent Israeli citizens.

    Of course he did. Israelis had experienced tit-for-tat suicide bombings each time Israeli gunships kill Palestinians.

    Ariel Sharon took this dangerously reckless risk to put on harm's way the lives of innocent Israeli citizens, knowing that Hamas will seek a more bloody revenge on the killing of their spiritual leader.

    Without doubt, it was a deliberate decison by Ariel Sharon to plunge the Middle East into another cycle of violence, and with it, the lives of innocent Israelis and Palestinians. They will be paying the price for the Israeli Prime Minister's one-upmanship to stoke the fires in the Middle East.

    Suspicions on the Arab streets point to the White House knowing beforehand the intent of Israel to assassinate Sheikh Yassin. No amount of denials by the White House will convince the Arab world. It is well known that Israel does not take such high risk action without seeking permission from the Bush Administration.

    It is too late for the Western world to condemn Israel. The Arab streets had heard and seen their condemnation meant little to Israel. The condemnation by Western countries are weak at best and hopelessly useless to reverse this bloodshed.

    When Hamas's revenge unfolds , choosing its own time and place, as everyone has predicted , the world will surely come to Israel's side to condemn the killing of the innocents, and so they should. But western leaders have this persistent amnesia on this current provocation by Israel that caused the violence that undoubtedly will unravel in days or months to come. One can only hope and pray that it does not happen.

    The US media, with its bias reporting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, must also take equal share of the blame for the death of innocents in Israel and in the Palestinian territories.

    The blood of innocent Israelis as a result of this assassination must fall on Ariel Sharon's hands.

    Given that the Israeli Army says Sharon himself commanded the assassination, the Israeli Prime Minister must now ensure he is well protected against Hamas.

  • Israel's assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin has enraged the Arab and Muslim world which has called for revenge and predicted that the region would plunge deeper into violence. Mohamed Mahdi Akef, leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, called it "an unforgivable crime" Read here for more

  • Palestinians have vowed bloody revenge on Israel after its helicopter gunships assassinated the spiritual leader of the Hamas Islamic militant group, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, as he left a mosque in his wheelchair in the pre-dawn.Israeli security sources said the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, a former general, commanded yesterday's killing of Sheik Yassin - the highest-profile symbol of Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip - from his ranch in the Negev Desert. Read here for more

  • Many Israelis would pay with their lives for the killing of Hamas's spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, an Israeli cabinet minister who voted against assassinating him says. "Certainly those who are perpetrating terrorism, preparing a bomb which we know they are about to place somewhere, have to be targeted. But Yassin was not a ticking bomb," the Interior Minister, Avraham Poraz, told Israel Radio yesterday. Read here for more

  • Egyptian leaders say the assassination of Palestinian Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin marks an end to the Middle East peace process. Arab leaders say the killing will have severe consequences throughout the region. Read here for more

  • Those who thought that hitting Sheikh Ahmed Yassin will serve as a deterrence are mistaken, Dr. Reuven Paz, research fellow of the National Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism of the Interdisciplinary Institute of Herzliya, told the Jerusalem Post. Paz, however, warned that Yassin's demise could have severe repercussions not only in Israel, but will cause reactions throughout the entire Moslem world and lead to attacks against Israelis and Jews abroad. "We are talking about Moslems in Europe and the United States who identify with the Hamas and its policies, and recruit funds on its behalf," he said. "I believe that the same Hamas supporters abroad will also begin to recruit activists to wage attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets abroad, and we could possibly see elements affiliated with Al Qaeda recruiting activists on behalf of the Hamas. Read here for more

  • Many of the world's leaders, from Britain to Iran, were quick to condemn Israel's killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin - with the United States one notable exception. AFP quoted a State Department official as urging "all sides to remain calm and exercise restraint." Read here for more

  • The United States strongly denied any involvement in the assassination on Monday of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and appealed for calm in the region following his death. White House national security advisor Condoleezza Rice said in a round of interviews on U.S. television stations that the United States did not have advance warning of the assassination. Read here for more

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