David Parsons, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem
March 22, 2004

Israel’s targeted killing of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin early this morning quickly drew condemnation worldwide, yet it is hardly justifiable that this militant Muslim cleric should enjoy an immunity from harm which he has denied to so many innocent Jewish children -- not to mention Palestinian mothers and youths.

Sheikh Yassin, the founder and "spiritual leader" of the radical Islamic terror militia Hamas, was killed in an Israeli air strike around daybreak Monday, moments after he left a Gaza City mosque. Seven others were killed in the strike on his motorcade, including two of Yassin's sons and several of his bodyguards.

As thousands of enraged Palestinians marched through the streets of Gaza City today, Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions vowed revenge.

Meantime, a chorus of criticism has been building in world capitals, with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw saying the pinpoint strike "is unacceptable, it is unjustified and it is very unlikely to achieve its objectives."

"All of us understand Israel's need to defend itself against terrorism which affects it - within international law, ... [but this is an] unlawful killing... and therefore we condemn it," said Straw, who was attending a summit of European Union foreign ministers convened to address terrorism in the wake of the recent Madrid train bombings.

"I don't think that it will help Israel that an 80 year-old man in a wheelchair was the target of their assassination," Straw concluded.

Yassin may be a crippled old man, but he is far from harmless.

Though a sporting accident left him paralyzed at age 12, this has not stopped Yassin from inspiring and orchestrating untold carnage on Israeli streets. Since founding Hamas early in the first intifada in December 1987, Yassin has led its violent campaign to destroy Israel.

Yassin was imprisoned twice in Israel, in 1984 and 1989, and received a life sentence for ordering the kidnapping and murder of two IDF soldiers, as well as for possession of weapons. Since his return to the Gaza Strip in 1997, he has become even more closely involved in Hamas terrorist activities, including directing terrorist operations in the field and raising and providing financial assistance to terror cells.

He is considered the central authority in Hamas for making decisions and determining policy, particularly regarding suicide missions, rocket attacks and other terrorist operations against Israeli targets.

During the current three-and-a-half year-old terror campaign, Hamas has perpetrated 425 terrorist attacks of various kinds, in which 377 Israelis were murdered and 2,076 civilians and soldiers were wounded. Among these were 52 suicide attacks, with Yassin authorizing the dispatch of teenagers and more recently a woman to carry out suicide bombings.

International law in general, and the law of armed conflict in particular, recognizes that individuals who directly take part in hostilities cannot then claim immunity. By directing and instigating armed attacks, Yassin has rendered himself an armed combatant and has forfeited any legal protections afforded civilians.

Israel has had little choice in targeting Yassin and other Palestinian terror leaders, since the Palestinian Authority refuses to disarm them or curb their activities.

In its own war on terrorism, the United States has claimed the same right under international law to preemptively target Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden and others.

Nor is Yassin to be considered a "political" leader immune from assassination.

While Hamas does provide welfare services to poor Palestinians, their main raison d’etre is the elimination of the Jewish state. Their charitable activities are meant to build popular support for their real agenda -- replacing Israel and the Palestinian Authority with a fundamentalist Islamic state in all "Palestine."

The Palestinian political scene is unique in the entire world, in that every political faction has established an armed wing to help achieve its aims, thus making it hard to consider any Palestinian leader solely a "political" figure. The sad truth is that the primary way for any party to build popular support among the Palestinian people is by drawing Jewish blood.

Since governmental elections are rare, the best gauge of public sentiment has become student elections at Palestinian universities. In a heated campaign only four months ago at the leading Beir Zeit University, students from Hamas and the ruling Fatah party of Yasser Arafat focused on which faction had killed the most Israelis.

At one debate, according to The Jerusalem Post, the Hamas candidate asked the Fatah candidate: "Hamas activists in this university killed 135 Zionists. How many did Fatah activists from Bir Zeit kill?"

The Fatah candidate refused to answer, suggesting his rival "look at the paper, go to the archives and see for yourself. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have not stopped fighting the occupation."

For Hamas, this is a "fight" against the very existence of Israel, one in which Sheikh Yassin has played a central role, especially by brainwashing children to aspire to martyrdom and then dispatching them to "knock on the gates of paradise with the skulls of Zionists."

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is regrettably bitter and bloody, and Israel does take a risk in eliminating this popular cleric. But if Yassin never extended immunity from harm to Israeli children and even Palestinian youths, why should anyone be exempting him from the sword?

David Parsons is the editor of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) News Service.