Posted on: Wednesday, July 24, 2002

EDITORIAL
Israeli Hamas air strike 'heavy-handed' indeed

We agree with the Bush administration that the missile attack in Gaza that killed a top Hamas leader this week was a "heavy-handed action" that "does not contribute to peace."

That's because at least 14 other Palestinians, including nine children, also died. The Israelis who executed this attack must have known of the probability of this gruesome "collateral damage" and concluded the trade-off in executing a terrorist was acceptable.

Where we part company with the Bush administration is in its refusal to acknowledge any parallel between the Gaza attack and the civilian toll that U.S. bombings have exacted in Afghanistan. The situations are quite parallel.

One has to wonder, however, at the glacially slow process of explaining the U.S. air raid July 1 that killed dozens of civilians at an Afghan wedding celebration.

Now, in an interview, Lt. Gen. Dan McNeill says the raid was connected with the hunt for fugitive Taliban leader Mohammad Omar, who may have been in the vicinity. For the first time, that at least would offer a logical explanation for the carnage.

Omar and the dead Hamas leader, Salah Shehadeh, both have a lot to answer for. Targeting either of them for execution by air raid, however, remains questionable. And killing numbers of innocent bystanders in such an effort is "heavy-handed" — and then some.