Editorial
Eye for bloody eye

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Last July, the world anxiously watched the tendrils of a Middle East cease-fire spread in search of fertile soil. There was talk of a Palestinian state.

After an Israeli missile attack Monday killed Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the world is back to holding its breath in fearful anticipation of what comes next. If past Israeli assassinations had worked as intended, presumably the country would be at peace. The reality is bloody eye-for-an-eye reprisals that blind all parties. Israel's friends and benefactors are left on the sidelines to mutter excuses, try to understand and wait for the bills.

The connection of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, to violence against Israel is as undisputed as its sponsorship of schools and clinics and religious and cultural institutions that have served Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip for decades.

The mystery is what Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon believed he gained when he ordered the death of a figure revered and beloved among Palestinians.

With the success of Islamic movements in Iran and elsewhere, Hamas fired imaginations in Gaza and the West Bank. Yassin served time in Israeli prison on terrorism charges but was released in 1997 in a prisoner exchange with Jordan.

If the Israelis thought they were killing the head of the snake in advance of withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, it was wishful thinking. Yassin leaves behind a well-financed and lethal movement.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw was unequivocal: Assassination "is unacceptable, it is unjustified and it is very unlikely to achieve its objectives."

The 200,000 Palestinians who took to the streets to mourn Yassin's death suggest the foreign minister is right.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company