Israeli majority
supports killings
Israelis widely applauded
the two recent slayings of
Palestinian Hamas leaders
By Michael Matza
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
JERUSALEM — Does Israel's policy
of marking Palestinian extremist lead
ers for death make the Jewish state a
safer place? Does it save Israeli lives, or
put them at greater risk by upping the
ante for retaliation?
The recent targeted killings of Hamas
leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Ab
del Aziz Rantisi were widely applauded
here, even as countries around the
world condemned them as "extrajudi
cial" executions.
"Illegal and disgusting," Sweden's
Prime Minister Goeran Persson said
of the airstrike that killed Rantisi in
the Gaza Strip on Saturday. "Unlaw
ful, unjustified and counterproduc
tive," British Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw said.
The United States, for its part, is
sued a muted call for Israel "to con
sider the implications of the actions it
carries out," while affirming its right
of self-defense.
Israeli officials say that the policy is
effective and that recent events prove it:
Hamas' military capability has been
dramatically eroded, and Israel has not
been forced to pay an unbearable price.
Despite bitter cries for an "earthquake"
of revenge after the March 22 killing of
Yassin, Hamas has been dysfunctional,
unable to mount a serious attack, the
officials say.
Further, they say, the fact that
Hamas was unwilling to publicly
identify Rantisi's chosen successor
Sunday shows the organization is on
the defensive.
The closely spaced attacks, and Is
rael's vow to step up pressure in
advance of its planned evacuation of
settlements from the Gaza Strip, have
sown "panic" and "serious distress"
among Hamas activists, Maariv, the Is
raeli daily, wrote Monday, quoting un
named security sources.
Overall Hamas leader Khaled
Mashaal, speaking from the relative
safety of Damascus, Syria, vowed
Sunday to respond with "100
unique attacks."
Israel, which has targeted Mashaal
and once tried to kill him with poison,
said over the weekend that it is consid
ering an attack on Hamas' Damascus
headquarters.
Avraham Rotem, a reserve army
major general and senior researcher at
Bar Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Cen
ter for Strategic Studies, said Israel's ra
tionale for targeted killings is three
fold: To decapitate Hamas, causing it
to writhe "like a snake without its
head;" to force its leaders to spend
more time worrying about safety than
planning attacks; and to sow dissen
sion in the organization in order to
improve the climate for recruiting col
laborators who may be more vulnera
ble because of internal disarray.
Israeli security sources say intelli
gence warnings about pending attacks
by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other
Palestinian extremist groups are rou
tine, sometimes exceeding 50 a day.
Critics of the targeting killings say
they make sense as the law of the jun
gle, but not as government policy, de
spite the heinousness of the targets.
Moreover, parliament member Yossi
Sarid said, "I don't believe it decreases
the level of terror. Sometimes it's the
other way around. It strengthens ex
tremism and fanaticism. You can assas
sinate an evil person, but you can't as
sassinate a whole movement."
(c) 2004, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
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