 |
Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia:
www.jewishexponent.com
He can be reached at:
|
|
|
|
By Jonathan S. Tobin
March 28, 2004
To listen to much of the commentary from world leaders and American editorial pages this week, Israel's killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was a crime that would set back the cause of Mideast peace. But the truth is, the three missiles fired from Israeli helicopters that ended Yassin's life was merely a case of belated justice.
Yassin was a 67-year-old quadriplegic, a fact that aroused sympathy for him, as well as revulsion against Israel's actions from many. Far from being a victim, Yassin was the most important leader of a movement that has killed hundreds of Jews in cold blood. He was the Palestinian idealogue of mass murder who bore responsibility for countless crimes committed by others in the name of the radical Islam he championed for decades from the confines of his much photographed wheeled perch.
Given the misleading language that is often used by the media to characterize Hamas, it is probably not surprising that Yassin's death would be the cause of so much pointless criticism. Though it has taken on a quasi-governmental role in Gaza, Hamas is neither the religious nor social-service agency it is often described as.
The Washington Post editorialized on March 23 that Yassin's killing puts off the day when Hamas will morph into a peaceful Islamic group. This is a farcical notion. Hamas is already a movement with a clear purpose - the destruction of Israel by armed force, the expulsion and/or murder of its Jewish population and the establishment of a radical Islamist state over the territory that would remain, including areas under the administration of the Palestinian Authority. The idea that Yassin was a force for moderation within Hamas is equally comical. Hamas was and is a group without a "moderate" wing even by the distorted and violent standards of Palestinian society. Compromise with Hamas is impossible.
While it might still be possible for some to pretend that Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement is a peace partner, no sane or honest person can harbor the same illusion about Hamas. As such, Israel not only had the right to pursue Yassin, it was duty-bound to track down him - and every other active member of Hamas - just like the United States hunts down members of the equally despicable Al Qaida.
There will be many who will seize upon the successful dispatch of Yassin and see it as an understandable rationale for future Hamas terror. But to accept this premise is to fall into the trap of blaming the victim - Israel - for having the temerity to defend itself. Like all previous Israeli acts of self-defense, this latest one is not part of a mythical "cycle of violence" that Israel is helping to perpetuate. Neither this incident nor the deaths of any of Yassin's henchmen was the motivation for any past or future terrorist attacks.
Hamas's murderous rampages are based in its belief system, not on any individual act of Israel. The only driving force behind Palestinian terrorism is Arab rejection of the right of the Jews to live in peace and sovereignty in their own homeland.
Some in Israel will question the wisdom of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his decision to launch an attack on Yassin now that he's announced a plan for withdrawal from Gaza. They question whether the cost of Yassin's death to Israel will be worth it. I don't know the answer to that question. But let there be no doubt as to the justice of this act, or that foreign criticism of Yassin's killing is rank hypocrisy.
History will deliver its own verdict on Sharon's judgment. But despite the culture of appeasement of Islamic terror that reigns in Europe and the rise of international anti-Semitism, Yassin's death proves again that as long as a Jewish state exists, it's no longer possible to murder Jews with impunity. And for that point alone, Sharon will deserve credit.
We are told by some experts that Arabs now have a greater motivation to kill Jews.
That's laughable; Hamas needs no new excuses to go ahead with their depredations anymore than they did in the past when they have killed hundreds.
Also ridiculous is the idea that Yassin's death will undermine America's war on terror because now moderate Arabs will be less inclined to work against Hamas' spiritual cousins in Al Qaida. Americans should stop kidding themselves about there being a difference between the two. The Europeans already understand this and seek to appease both in a vain effort to stay out of the fighting. Americans need to understand that a real war on Islamic terror that grants immunity to Hamas is a sham.
Whatever happens in the coming days, Palestinians should think more clearly about the costs to themselves of their passion for the spilling of Jewish blood that Yassin helped inspire. Let those who would follow his path, including those who seek to murder Americans in the name of Islam, draw the proper conclusions from Yassin's fate.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
