(Baltimore Sun) Barry Rubin - U.S. officials considered trying to kill bin Laden in Afghanistan but decided not to try, according to the televised hearings of the commission investigating 9/11. Does this suggest that refraining from killing terrorist leaders is perhaps not a good idea? How would Americans feel - knowing what they know now - if they were able to make this choice over again? Israel's killing Monday of Hamas leader Sheikh Yassin is a parallel situation. With Yassin dead, the only possible Islamist successor to Arafat is out of the picture. The prospects of Hamas seizing power after Arafat's death or Israel's withdrawal from Gaza have vanished. Hamas will be weaker without the sheikh, because it is a very fragmented organization; only its spiritual leader could hold it together. The ascendance of Abdel Aziz Rantisi as Hamas' new leader will not make it a tougher organization. The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Israel.
2004-03-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive