Israeli Strategy And The Assassination Of Sheikh Yassin
JNV Anti-War Briefing 59 (27 March 2004)

Posted: 10 April 2004

THE ASSASSINATION OF SHEIKH YASSIN
Israeli Prime Minister ‘Ariel Sharon personally approved the missile attack that killed the quadriplegic Hamas founder as he was pushed in his wheelchair outside his local mosque.’ (Guardian, 23 Mar., p. 1) ‘Sheikh Yassin was believed to be the highest-profile Palestinian ever killed by the Israelis.’ (Times, 23 Mar., p. 1) ‘While Yassin was reviled in Israel for his support for suicide bombers and a prediction that Israel would one day cease to exist, opinion polls of Palestinians consistently ranked him second to Yasser Arafat as a popular and trusted leader.’ (Washington Post, 23 Mar., p. A01)

‘Like a Mandela – unseen, unheard, yet charismatic in his prison cell – now half blind and deaf as well as crippled, Yassin’s prestige grew inexorably, just as that of Arafat, the official Mr Palestine, an ever-greater travesty of all that Mandela ever stood for, withered beneath the glare of a publicity he could no longer escape.’ (Guardian, 23 Mar., p. 25)

[’Israeli army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon, hinted that the targets could now include Yasser Arafat… a government source said the promise given by Mr Sharon not to harm Mr Arafat applied only to the run-up to the war in Iraq last year.’ (Guardian, 24 Mar., p. 1)]