Yassin assassination only fuels hatred
Hu Xuan  Updated: 2004-03-24 08:46

Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, was killed by an Israeli missile strike on Monday as he was leaving a mosque in Gaza City after praying.

Entombed along with Yassin is the hope of reviving the US-brokered roadmap peace plan, which envisioned an end to the vicious cycle of violence in the Middle East and the creation of a Palestinian state by next year.

Yassin's assassination will only sow more seeds of hatred among Palestinians, who have vowed to unleash a wave of revenge attacks on Israel.

Israel cannot shirk its responsibility for the spiralling tit-for-tat vengeance, which will inevitably drive the already desperate situation increasingly out of control.

"Such actions are not only contrary to international law, but they do not do anything to help the search for a peaceful solution," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said of the killing.

The assassination has drawn wide condemnation in the international community as illegal and provocative.

Moderate Arabs have also reacted with dismay and despair, predicting Yassin's murder will swell the ranks of radical Islamic extremists.

It is difficult to see how Yassin's death makes Israel any safer.

The ceaseless violence between Israel and Palestine mirrors the reality that the former cannot realize comprehensive peace without recognizing the latter's claims to statehood.

To thwart more catastrophes in the region, both must keep their sense and not take further provocative actions.

Israel, which previously tried to kill Yassin in September, renewed its decision to do so after a deadly double suicide bombing at the heavily guarded port of Ashdod last Sunday.

Palestinian militants in Gaza have been stepping up attacks in recent weeks.

In retaliation for the bombing, Israel launched air strikes against suspected Hamas targets in Gaza and planned to escalate attacks on militant leaders.

More than three years of bloody conflicts have yet to make either side understand that military violence is not the tool to bring peace.

The rub is that the decades-long conflict is locked in a twisted logic of violence in which assassinations, suicide bombings and mutual distrust seem destined only to grow.

The violence of the last exhausting 41 months - the suicide bombings of Israeli buses and the smashing of Palestinian homes - shows that neither side has gained what they dearly long for - feeding the sense of victimhood that is destroying both the Jewish state and hope for any future Palestinian state.

The episode also challenges the United States to increase pressure on and to become even more involved with both sides.

The White House declined to explicitly denounce the assassination, saying the United States believed the Hamas chief had personally planned terror attacks.

In addition to calling for restraint from both sides, the Bush administration can and must do more. The ongoing conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is the wound that must be healed before there can ever be hope of peace in the region as a whole.

Washington holds the key to the door of opportunity, but it has been long on road maps and short on drivers.

Any strategy of a "war on terror" or a "greater Middle East initiative" loses credibility unless the United States demonstrates it is determined to undertake a serious, concerted effort to wrench the Israelis and Palestinians from futile combat.

It is of vital importance for the United States to fulfil its pledges to the Israel-Palestinian conflict with sustained energy and focus.

(China Daily)

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