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Double Standard When Fiends Slain
(Montreal Gazette-Canada) Brian Smith - On March 22, 2004, a rocket fired from an Israeli helicopter gunship terminated the life of the terrorist leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a founder of Hamas. World reaction was swift and almost unanimous in its condemnation of Israel. In contrast, the same countries have reacted quite differently to the assassination of Osama bin Laden by the U.S. Ahmed Yassin was responsible for some 425 brutal attacks on Israeli civilians carried out by Hamas. At least 377 Israelis were murdered and 2,076 wounded in the 3 1/2 years preceding his death. A rough calculation shows that approximately one in 18,500 Israelis was murdered by Hamas, while the number of those murdered in the 9/11 attacks was one in 102,000 Americans. It is time for the world community to abandon its double standard and accord to Israel the same right of self-defense that is claimed by every other people on the face of the globe.