Contradictory? Perhaps.
I'm assuming that there were things that could be done to Hamas, short of assassinating Yassin, that would not result in the kind of increased support for Hamas that the hit seems to have created.
Don't get me wrong, Yassin was a thug and a killer of the worst kind. Like Arafat, he probably should have been targeted for assassination a very long time ago. Killing him at this particular time, however, seems unwise.
Perhaps the thinking is very long term. A decision that peace is impossible, that the increase in radical Islam throughout the ME will prevent any settlement, that the two state solution is a chimera, and that therefore it's time to do what should have been done a long time ago, regardless of the consequences. This is the only way that I can see any logic behind killing Yassin.
The sad thing is that no side can win. Israel's military advantage cannot prevent all attacks and the Palestinians seem irrationally accepting of being hammered in retaliation. All the parties can do is continue to bloody each other until somehow, someway, the whole thing blows up when Israel suffers a WMD attack, and retaliates in a truly catastrophic manner.
The thinking behind the assassination and perhaps the further assassinations to come might very well go along the lines set forth above. Perhaps they'll forestall a WMD attack. |
