Monday, March 22, 2004

Violence may Rise in the Middle East: Killing of Hamas's Spiritual Leader Yassin

Killing of Hamas's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin connotes the questions as what would the Israeli administration aim through this attack and why it organized such an action, which would push it into a legitimacy crisis in the international community.

Representing the radical wing in Israel, the ruling Sharon administration's method of its fighting against the "Palestine conflict", is dominated with the idea of fathering any kind of violent action on legal grounds and responding to violence with violence. Accordingly, violence can only be halted by violence. Therefore, the recent activity against Yassin should be assessed under these operations realized in the scope of overcoming resistance. So, what kind of an affect would this operation possess in terms of overcoming this resistance or what have Israel targeted? Many interpreters defined Sheikh Yassin as the person determining the entire strategy of the organization. Hence, killing of Yassin would have a negative affect on Hamas's long-term success and activity. In addition, Israel has realized this operation knowing the possible effect to come out in the organization. We can say that through this action, Israel aimed to create a fight for power within Hamas. However, the initial developments showed that Israel failed to reach its aim for the time being and through Halit Meshal becoming Hamas leader and by the announcement of Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a hardliner who rejects all compromise with Israel, as new leader in Gaza, the possible crisis was overcome.

Besides the long-term benefits for Israel, this action also has the potential of giving birth to many problems in Israel and in the countries having close relation with her. The perception as this operation was realized under the US's cognizance and approval may leave the US face to face with paying the cost of this assassination. Shiite disturbance from Yassin's killing, especially in terms of Iraq, has the potential to increase the attacks against the US. On the other hand, the incident may urge a Sunni and al-Qaida network resistance in the country. In addition, the realization of this operation at the time of the "Greater Middle East" project and its rejection by the Arab countries would feed anti-Americanism feelings in the region. Moreover, this action will legitimize actions of Syria and Iran, who possess the anti-Americanism expression inside. In terms of al-Qaida, international activities may be realized against Jewish targets. All the countries other than the US have condemned the assassination.

Despite all the negative affects, it's possible to say that Israel will be advantageous in terms of overcoming the resistance. Even if the terrorist activities or the suicide attacks increase in Israel in short-term, Hamas, representing the radical wing in Palestinian resistance, may loose strength. In addition, the international reaction and legality crisis engenders serious results as Israel counters with such an event and gains no concrete development. The reactions against Israel will remain at the speech level. Israel continues implementing harsh politics in order to reach as solution by taking advantages from the new regional environment emerged in favour of Israel in the post-war period.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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