After Sharon’s Many Provocations…

If it were any other leader who had given the order to kill a crippled old man, living out his last days in a wheelchair, after eight years in Israeli prisons, it would have been hard for the world to understand. But when Ariel Sharon, who has a history of provocation is responsible, it is not hard to understand. It is stated that Sharon, whose policies are based on violence, directly ordered the assassination of Sheik Yassin, commanded the attack personally and monitored the entire operation from his farm.

The Israeli leader was blamed for the Sabra and Shatilla massacres while he was defense minister between 1981 and 1983. Sharon, who was forced to resign from his post, was nicknamed the ‘Butcher of Beirut’

because of his role in these massacres.

Later, Sharon sparked yet another big provocation when he was the Israeli opposition leader, by stepping into Haram al-Sharif on September 28, 2000. The death toll in the intifada provoked by his visit, has reached 4,000. While Israelis have been subjected to more suicide attacks, the number of Palestinian human losses, among them children and women, from Israeli raids, is 2,865.

Sharon is in the spotlight now with his provocative assassination of Sheik Yassin, following the construction of the highly-controversial ‘security wall.’

It is doubtful that the elimination of Sheik Yassin with this rocket attack will contribute to Israel’s fight against terrorism. On the contrary, it will accelerate violence and suicide attacks, and it will become easier for Hamas to recruit new members, with bigger motivation to kill.

Particularly, the assassination of a blind and almost deaf symbolic figure, whose body could not even perform its normal functions, will make the task of Muslim leaders and intellectuals who hold positions against terrorism harder. However it will help al-Qaeda and similar groups. From now on, masses will point at what Sharon did to a person who condemns terrorism.

If one of the three missiles has hit the sheik, the others have just as surely hit Israel’s closest ally, the United States, which is eager to bring a peaceful and democratic system to the Middle East. The assassination will strengthen hands of those who object Bush’s Greater Middle East Project by saying, ‘Solve the Palestinian issue first.’