Posted on: Tuesday, March 23, 2004

EDITORIAL
Spilling more blood prolongs blood feud

The frustration of Israelis with the stubborn persistence of Hamas and its allies in deadly terrorist attacks makes the targeted assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin understandable.

The problem is that this remedy won't end the frustration.

The assassination is no surprise; Israel said in January that the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas was "marked for death" because "he and others were behind the terror framework in the Gaza Strip." Yassin narrowly escaped death in September when an Israeli jet dropped a bomb on a building where he was known to be staying.

It may be fair to say that Sheik Yassin bears responsibility, as a Hamas leader ordering suicide attacks, for his own death. What is questionable is the practical wisdom of the extreme policy of assassinating him.

Many Israelis, and their generally conservative American supporters, say the removal of a terrorist leader makes perfect sense. If he is no longer there to give the orders, the suicide bombings will cease, it is argued.

But the tens of thousands of Palestinians who took to the streets to protest Yassin's death quickly served to illustrate the age-old folly of attempting to end a blood feud by spilling more blood.

If the Israeli-Palestinian cycle of violence could be broken by superior force, that would have happened years ago. This is not news to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has not in the past been above producing distractions from his own discomfort in a deepening domestic scandal.

The assassination, meanwhile, makes the chances of a comprehensive political settlement ever more remote. And it's our guess that, sadly, it exposes Israelis to yet more terrorist attacks.