Fight Fire with Fire?

No, but if you take out the "justifiably" part, then yes. I hate when Israel does stuff like this. The U.S. does back Israel 99% of the time, but we can't in this. All this assassination does is reinforce all the negative stereotypes regarding the U.S. and Israel held my thousands, if not millions, of extremists in the Muslim world.

 

How timely this thread is. Boortz had this link on his blog today:

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/880818a.htm

I cannot confirm the accuracy of the document, or the reliability of the source, but if this is true, then as far as I am concerned, Israel is welcome to put the crosshairs on any person who joins Hamas.

 

As it origin from an Isralei website, and IIRC a goverment one, I think that you can trust it as much as you can trust Hitler when he said that Jews were the root of all evil.

No offence Tal, but don't forget how many Palestinans that the IDF have killed over the years. They are not so nice, themself. They put the muslims in small camps and build walls around them, very noble of them. I just hope that Sharon gets what he deserves, quickly.

EDIT: This sounded very, very, wrong, and I do not wish to see the death of all jews, I just dislike the Israeli goverment and their goals.

 

I have always believed that the whole middle east situation will never be resolved peacefully; it will go on until it turns into a full-blown war. If the U.S. then gets involved, I hate to think what that would mean globally.

This latest action by Israel only reinforces my belief.

 

Whether or not it was justified I really can't say. It certainly wasn't a wise move, IMO. Yassin was considered one of the more peaceful and calming members of Hammas, advocating a non-violent approach publicly on several occasions. Whether that was just a public front or not we may never know. He could very well have been more dangerous than widely believed by the Palestinians.

But one thing is for sure. Any prayer the Roadmap had of success has now completely evaporated. Sharon gave Hammas and every fanatical Islamic jihadist the best recruitment tool they've had in years. I'm thankful I don't live in Israel right now.

 

Splunge, DR -- I heartily agree. This conflict has been going on so long now and each side is so convinced of all the wrongs that they've had to suffer at each other's hands, I don't see how it will ever be resolved.

I'm really torn about this topic in many ways. In some cases, such as with Iraq and Bin Laden, I've taken the stand... "just send someone in there and take him out!"...the assassin approach -- quietly done, but nevertheless, revenge. In this case, it's different. Israel is PROUD of the fact that they targeted and killed this individual...they announced their feat and continue to boast about it publicly. They wanted to make a show. Is one method better than the other. Morally, they're both reprehensible, or maybe it's just that one is easier to swallow than the other, because in one case we don't have to look at what we've done and in the other, we can't escape it.

 

IMO, it already is war, and they might as well get on with it.

 

I see this as just another step in the cycle of violence. Yassim was by no means an angel but now at his death he has atleast ascended to martyrhood. What I cant understand is why Isreal again and again oblige the terrorists and give them "justification" for their hate and make another generation of Palestenians grow up to hate Israelis. Violence feeds violence. Always. Someone has to stop the cycle, which seems to be way too much to ask for. I had hopes for Isreal taking the first steps but after listening to some top officials in the Isreali structure that hope is shattered, their attityde is just like Hamas or the Hizbollah's, they dont see any occupation and they see the Palestinians as the embodiment of all evil. The only difference is that Israel has the luxury of atleast trying to aim towards combatants. Not that the civilian Palestanian casualty list is any shorther than the Israeli...

 

What I really don't understand is what Israel is hoping to gain with these actions? Yassin may not have been exactly a peaceful man, but atleast he was willing to negotiate with the Israeli government, now if the truly extreme parts of Hamas take over the situation might completely spiral out of control.

There is really only two solutions for Israel to solve this conflict, the first is a peaceful solution and the other is ethnic cleansing...

 

Oh pity the poor palestinians. Everyone knows all they would have to do is renounce their violent ways and the region would eventually move towards peace. Every Israeli air strike is a retaliation for an earlier bombing.

Here is a great link to see what the Israeli people have to deal with. The Palestinians have raised an entire generation on hate. Are the Israeli's innocent, of course not. But to blame Israel for trying to defend its borders and citizens is irresponsible.

In Spain everyone accepts that Spain will hunt down the terrorists and prosecute them like the criminals they are. Lets see what happens if it turns out that the terrorists are from Morroco and enjoy the peace, safety, and protection of the Morrocan people and government.

I can't even imagine having to live in a country surrounded by people who hated you long before you developed an economy, a military, and especially the bomb. The hatred was there long before the IDF was able to launch its first air strike.

I've said it before and I will say it again. The only thing keeping the Palestinians alive is the ghost of Hitler. One day they will do something so horrific that the Israeli people will break and wipe them out completely.

Just for the record I am Jewish.

 

And give up land.

 

Never forget the old adage about possession being 90% of the law.

Or as your link says

and then

So maybe it isn't the palestinian's land to give up.

 

Are we talking physical possession, which the Palestinians clearly had, or nostalgia?

 

Both I guess. If you want to use the argument about who had the land first, the Israelis have a claim going back millenia. If you want to use the argument on who has the land now, the Israelis clearly have it and have governed/possessed it since post WWI (I do not know the actual date, I just remembered that from your link).

 

That wall they're putting up is looking suspiciously like another land grab - and if there's any issue hotter than religion, it's land - and here you have both combined in an explosive mix.

 

Sharon is not an idiot, he knows that the assasination of Yasin will lead to a new wave of suicide bombings, which will have as a result dozens of dead Israelis. IMO his aim is that the bloodbath of the suicide bombings will gain the international sympathy for Israel and that it will give him the justification to proceed to his final solution with much less international pressure.

Interesting opinion but I think that the only thing, that the ghost of Hitler has done, is to make the international community very tolerant with the israeli violations of the international law starting from the abduction of Adolf Eichmann to the things that are happening today in the middle east. Really, how many times Sharon and the rest israeli leaders have called nazi and antisemite everybody who disagrees with their policies?

 

Can you blame them? The international press uses quotes just like this one you posted.

Now put yourself in their shoes. Nowhere in the above quote does it mention all of the settlers that have been shot, all the buses blown up, all the markets attacked. Doesn't that quote seem to imply that Israel is the aggressor and the poor palestinians are victims of an evil government? These are people that have been at war for 50 years. How else would you expect them to act?

I'm giving BOC the benefit of the doubt that he is not an anti-semite. I see you are from Greece. Historically, the Greeks and Turks have hated each other. Now imagine that for your entire life Turks have been blowing up and killing people in Greece and the Greeks have been retaliating the entire time. Wouldn't you be a little defensive if you were accused of international offenses et al while the Turks got a free pass? I use this scenerio working on the assumption that Greece is the stronger power militarily. I have no idea if this is really true.

 

Entirely by coincidence...this week, the 9/11 Commission here in the US slapped both Clinton and Bush for not killing bin Laden when they had the chance. Some have noted, however, that the actual 9/11 attack might've occurred even if bin Laden had been removed from the picture, and the attack would probably have been judged to have been retaliation for his death.

Assassination seems to be moral when missed chances are judged by hindsight, and immoral when taken chances are judged by foresight.

I still (naively) think the real answer to the Israeli-Palestinian problem is to merge the two into one big unhappy democratic family. But barring that, targeted assassinations seem a lot kinder than the kind of large-scale (and so effective!) executions favored by yesterday's Assad and Hussein.