Debate Grows Over Israeli Target Killings

AP/ Yahoo News ^ | Sept. 7, 2003 | IAN JAMES

[prairiebreeze]

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) declared after a botched strike against Hamas' revered founder that all members of the Islamic militant group were "marked for death." But as Israel edges toward all-out war with Hamas, a debate brewed Sunday over the morality of "targeted killings" and whether the policy can deter militants.

The decision to ratchet up the war on Hamas — after the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing last month that killed 22 Israelis, including six children — has considerable public support, and on Sunday, Israeli helicopters fired two missiles at the home of Hamas militant Abdel Salam Abu Musa in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites). Eleven people were wounded; the Israeli army said the target was a weapons warehouse in Musa's house where explosives and firearms were stored in preparation for attacks.

The weekend attack on Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the group's 68-year-old spiritual leader, exposed the growing debate among Israelis about such strikes. Some say targeting leaders once exempted as "political" might force them to mend their ways. Others compare Hamas to a punching bag, always swinging back with equal force to the blow it has absorbed.

The group says it has hundreds of would-be suicide bombers who anticipate becoming "martyrs," and its revenge for the latest strike will be more severe than ever.

"I don't think it will lead anywhere but to more cycles of bloodshed," retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Doron Kadmiel told The Associated Press.

The bomb that tore into an apartment building in Gaza City on Saturday was intended for Hamas leaders the army said were meeting there. Sixteen were injured, including Yassin, who suffered a minor hand wound.

Within hours, the quadriplegic Yassin and his armed guards appeared among thousands of supporters.

"It's clear that we are going to win," Yassin said. "Our people will not surrender. We will not raise a white flag."

Sunday's attack in the Gaza Strip seemed to confirm Israel's decision to target Hamas militants. Ambulances rushed to Musa's home but witnesses said he escaped moments before the strike. Nine people were hospitalized, including three children with moderate shrapnel wounds.

Before the Sunday attack, a Hamas spokesman said Israel "opened the gates of hell" — words that have a ring of credibility in Israel, where suicide bombings have killed 400 people in the past three years.

Israel Radio devoted much of its Sunday morning report to debate about the policy.

Retired Brig. Gen. Nehemia Dagan argued the killings will only provoke more revenge attacks, while Dan Shomron, a former military chief, said Hamas must be confronted because it will always fight to destroy Israel.

Terrorism expert Yohanan Tsoref told Israel's Channel 10 that "the nature of these groups is that they rise up again" even if their activists and leaders are killed.

Hamas was founded in 1987 with the goal of ending the Israeli occupation, but it also supports an Islamic state "from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea" — including Israel.

Hamas — which stands for Islamic Resistance Movement — says in a 1998 document it is "but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished."

Israel's strategy of "targeted killings," condemned as assassinations by Palestinians, has been employed frequently during the past three years of fighting. About 140 militants — and dozens of civilians — have been killed by missiles, bombs and snipers.

But the latest strike marked a new willingness to wipe out the group's entire leadership. Sharon told the Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper that Israel's campaign against Hamas members would press ahead.

"They are marked for death," he was quoted as saying. "We won't give them a moment's rest. We will continue to hunt them because they have only one objective: the destruction of Israel."

Some Israelis are uncomfortable with the civilian casualties, but say it is the cost of war.

"Israel has no choice," said Yonatan Frimer, a 25-year-old pizza delivery man in Jerusalem. "The Palestinians have terrorists living among them and are not doing anything about it."

Striking at Hamas leaders "is far more moral than when they massacre us on buses," said Gabi Rotem, a 28-year-old computer technician. "There is no alternative."

But in a reflection of its concerns, the army has employed philosophy professor Asa Kasher of Tel Aviv University to examine the moral questions surrounding the killings and defend army policy.

"Two conditions have to be met for militants to be targeted," Kasher said. "They must be involved in preparing or carrying out a terrorist attack, and they must be in a position where if Israeli soldiers attempted to capture them the soldiers' lives would be endangered."

Part of the difficulty in confronting Hamas stems from its deep roots, with related charities providing financial aid and other services for poor Palestinians or those whose relatives have died in the violence.

Hamas does not reveal how many members it has, but it regularly rallies tens of thousands of marchers to fill Gaza City streets.

The group also faces international pressure. The European Union (news - web sites) will freeze the assets of all wings of Hamas — including its fund-raising charities and social welfare groups, and the Bush administration has frozen the assets of five European-based organizations it claimed raised money for Hamas.

Israel's top demand for the Palestinian leadership has been to dismantle militant groups — such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad — as required by the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan. But Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who resigned Saturday, said he could not gain support for that because of the continued Israeli strikes.

"Violence is not a successful tool to fight violence," Palestinian Cabinet minister Ghassan Khatib said. "Israel's experiments have shown that the more violence the Israelis use, the more the Palestinians will respond with violence."

The United States also has repeatedly criticized the strikes.

"To kill one Hamas leader but to wound nine children or 10 children in the course of this, who will grow up to become Hamas leaders or Hamas killers later — they have to consider the long-term consequences of this policy," Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.

[prairiebreeze]

This is blatantly anti-Semitic AP media bias through and through. I have to wonder if the quote from Powell isn't excepted and presented out of context. I didn't see the Sunday talk shows. Did anybody hear Powell say this?

Prairie

[Diogenesis]

Powell supports and prefers bus-bombings of innocent children and Americans
rather than simply putting ALL - serial murderers to ground.

Woe to our beloved America that this has persisted for too long.

[BlazingArizona]

Israel is just doing what it has to do to survive. And if we want to win the war we're now engaged in, we will have to do the same.

[witnesstothefall]

You are exactly right. Targeted killings in fact are the result of compassion for noncombatants, among and behind whom the terrorists hide.

Israel has the might to defeat it's enemy in a matter of hours, if she chose to just do it. Instead, she chooses to cherry pick the enemy leadership and worst perps because it is a civilized country. Too civilized, you ask me.

[LasVegasMac]

debate brewed Sunday over the morality of "targeted killings" and whether the policy can deter militants.

Hamas — after the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing last month that killed 22 Israelis, including six children..

The only debate there needs to be is the exact method of extermination. Not "if" - only when and how.

I wonder how this country will react when this crap starts within our borders?

LVM

[prairiebreeze]

I wonder how this country will react when this crap starts within our borders?

Indeed. Good point.

Prairie

[tet68]

Yassin said. "Our people will not surrender. We will not raise a white flag."

No Quarter it is, give it to them NOW!!!

[ex-Texan]

Nothing to debate. Israel has the right to defend itself just like the US and UK.

The "debate" will end in Europe after the first bomb goes off in Paris or Berlin or Brussels or London. Airplanes turned into flying bombs are easy to visualize. Small dirty nukes packed with reactor waste may be launched by grenade launchers into a major city very easily. Imagine Paris cordoned off for the next 100 years !

I'm with Sharon on this. Execute all Hamas leaders by helicopter attack today!

[Rome2000]

These Nazi scumbags are the ones who are going to see hell

They are evil demented ululating insane death worshiping subhuman primitive monsters.

They will be crushed like insects in the name of humanity.

And Allah was nothing more than a child molesting demon.

Amin Al Husseini seen inspecting his Hanzar Division made up exclusively of Muslims, mostly from the Crotia/Bosnia/Serbia region. They actively lead the genocide against Serbs, Serbian Jews and Gypsies.

Amin Al Husseini meets with Adolf Hitler in November 1942, weeks before the decision to implement the Final Solution which sent Europe's Jews to the gas chamber. The Third Reich provided Amin Al Husseini with a salary and appointed him Head of the Hanzar SS Division. The Hanzar Division was made of Nazi Muslims and implemented the genocide of 250,000 Serbs, Gypsies and Jews during WWII.

Amin Al Husseini shown here on a Nazi poster recruiting fellow Muslims to join Hitler in the fight against the West and the Jews. His disciples today include Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and the leaders of Hamas, Al Qeida and Islamic Jihad.

Amin Al Husseini, future President of the World Islamic Congress (1961) and founding father of the Arab League (1944) inspects his Muslim Nazi troops, the Hanzar Division. Amin Al Husseini making the traditional nazi salute.

Yasser Arafat became a disciple of Amin Al Husseini since the age of 17. Here: recent picture of Palestinian soldiers under the leadership of Arafat making the traditional Nazi salute.

[ml/nj]

I hope the debate is between targeted and indiscriminate killings.

ML/NJ

[boris]

"But as Israel edges toward all-out war with Hamas, a debate brewed Sunday over the morality of 'targeted killings' and whether the policy can deter militants."

I suppose they prefer 'indiscriminate killings'. That can be arranged.

--Boris

[boris]

What can I say? Two minds; a single thought.