THE GATES TO HELL: The Assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was the spiritual leader of Palestine’s Hamas until an Israeli helicopter assassinated him on March 22, 2004. By turning him into a martyr, Prime Minister Sharon has “opened the gates of hell!”

It’s hard to imagine things getting any worse in the Middle East — but they just did. Just when you think the situation between Israel and Palestine couldn’t become any more hopeless, it does. The targeted assassination by missile fire on March 22 of Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, by an Israeli helicopter accomplished two things for sure: It guaranteed Hamas and other terrorist organizations a furious new flock of recruits and it weakened the moderates on both sides. If this is Sharon’s idea for gaining added security, it sure isn’t for the rest of us. A Hamas spokesman said this killing “opened the gates of hell,” and that includes us.

In a radical departure from the past, Hamas has implicated the United States in this killing, saying Israel wouldn’t have gone forward with it without the tacit approval of the White House. Whether that’s true or not is beside the point. The point is they believe it. And they have indicated that all allies of Israel are now fair game as future targets for their bombers, snipers, homemade rockets, and mortars.

Mohammed Mahdi Akef of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt put it this way: “There can be no life for the Americans and Zionists in the region.” A spokesman for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the terrorist wing of Arafat’s Fatah movement, said: “War, war, war on the sons of Zion.” Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia of the Palestinian Authority, and a leading moderate, put it this way: “This is a crazy and dangerous act. It opens the door wide to chaos.”

For those who think this act will only make things worse in the region, the words of a Palestinian college student are ominous and depressing: “Now thousands of us will be Sheikh Yassin!”

The White House issued a lukewarm condemnation, saying, “We are troubled” by the assassination. Their ambivalence is understandable. Israel says it is only applying the same concept of “preemptive action” against an established terrorist threat that the Bush administration has promoted and encouraged. “How can you condemn us for doing exactly what you did to justify the Iraq invasion?” Sharon could rightly ask us.

Fair enough, but Israel is not convincing anyone that this killing will contribute to their future security. “Why now?” everyone is asking.

Sheikh Yassin was well-known for his role in the ongoing intifada over the past 3 1/2 years. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shalom refers to Yassin as “The Godfather of suicide bombers.” Few would dispute this description on either side of the conflict. Almost 400 Israelis have been killed and over 2,000 seriously wounded in 50 suicide bombings and other attacks with his approval, if not direction. Hamas has military leaders that are also on the Israeli hit list, but Yassin represents something different, something special in this terrible equation.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was the spiritual leader of Hamas, which means his loyal followers, and many others throughout the Middle East and the world, see his assassination as a direct and intentional attack on Islam. This distinction brings a whole new dimension to the problem, enlarging it from a regional conflict to a religious conflict. Israel says they simply eliminated another terrorist leader. But many in the Muslim war see it as the initiation of a Holy War against the faith. They have killed a wheelchair-bound invalid who was of great symbolic significance, terrorist or not. By turning him into an overnight martyr, Israel has unleashed forces it cannot possibly control.

This miscalculation on the part of Israel will come back to haunt them. It feeds into the conspiracy theory that there is a Jewish-American effort to paint all Muslims as potential terrorists. They have further alienated their allies in Europe who have cut back on their support for Hamas since it was designated a terrorist state by the European Union. And Egypt has cancelled a trip to Israel by a delegation of legislators to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their peace treaty. Hezbollah has launched attacks across the Lebanese border. Large crowds of angry protesters are filling the streets of every major Middle East city calling for immediate revenge.

Sheikh Yassin has been targeted for months, yet he’s been living a relatively open life in Gaza City, tempting fate. He must have come to the conclusion that the IDS wouldn’t carry through on the threat, even though he barely survived a September 6th attack. The answer to the question, Why now? may be found in Sharon’s current dilemma. He’s been making vague references to a complete pullout from the Gaza Strip, which would involve the relocation of 7,000 Jewish settlers. Some of his supporters are in an uproar over this idea, because they think it will allow Hamas and the other terrorist organizations complete freedom in the area to launch raids. Two recent suicide bombers who originated from Gaza City appear to have pushed Sharon to intensify his effort to severely wound Hamas before the pullout. He also doesn’t want to leave the impression that Hamas drove them out of Gaza, as Hezbollah claims they drove Israel out of Lebanon in the late 80s. In killing Yassin, Sharon is wrong in thinking he has wounded Hamas and like-minded groups. He has, in fact, empowered them!

The tragic irony of this is that Hamas came into existence in the late 80s with the help of Israel, when they were encouraging other Palestinian groups to challenge Arafat’s Fatah movement. Israel is now facing an emboldened and popular terrorist movement as Arafat’s Palestinian Authority becomes increasingly marginalized.

The other casualties of this event include the Bush Road Map to Peace, which is on life support at the moment, if not terminal. As the Palestinian Authority is weakened, so too is Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, our best hope to bridge the gap with Israeli moderates. The Geneva Accord will also be pushed out of the spotlight as emotionalism runs its course throughout the region and violence begets violence.

In 2001 Sheikh Yassin said about the suicide bombers, “When one of us dies, it’s like a wedding day for him, because we know he’ll be so high in heaven.” In the region, it is the prospects for peace that have died with him.