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March 26, 2004/Nisan 4 5764, Vol. 56, No. 27
Will Yassin killing foil U.S. plans?
RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - The death of Sheik Ahmed Yassin will pave the way to Palestinian moderation, Israel and its friends in Washington say.
But others, including Bush administration officials, are worried that the road just got a lot bumpier.
The United States scrambled March 22 to reassure the world - and particularly Hamas - that it had no foreknowledge of Israel's predawn assassi-nation of the Hamas leader in Gaza.
"The consequences of this action, in terms of raising tension and making it harder to pursue peace efforts - those are things of concern to us," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, calling the killing "deeply troubling."
The White House ulti-mately concurred, after initially affirming Israel's right to defend itself.
The law of unintended consequences, which has dogged other recent major Israeli initiatives, had struck again: An attempt to stem terrorism instead had sparked in Washington and European capitals a fear of revenge attacks.
Administration insiders described March 22 as a day in which Boucher started by contemplating a mild rebuke, then toughening it as European and Arab countries expressed alarm and con-cern that the attack would strengthen Hamas and not weaken it.
"It's like a starfish: You cut off one leg, another grows in," one administration official said. "We're expecting alerts to go up everywhere."
By March 23, CNN was quoting an Iraqi cleric as calling on Muslims to "unite against Israel," raising the prospect that Yassin's killing could hinder U.S. efforts to disengage from Iraq by sparking more violence there.
After Hamas reportedly threatened to broaden its attacks beyond Israeli targets, European Union foreign ministers said in a statement that the killing "has inflamed the situation."
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan "strongly condemned" the killing and said he was worried that "such an action would lead to further bloodshed and death and acts of revenge and retaliation."
Especially aggravating, U.S. officials said, was the prospect that the assassi-nation would scuttle the possibility of a new peace initiative from next week's Arab League summit.
U.S. officials also were frustrated because they see the attack as undermining support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, which they support.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom had planned to spend March 22 in Washington describing plans for the withdrawal and probing U.S. proposals to contain Syria and Iran. Instead, much of his time was spent explaining the Yassin killing.
A senior Israeli official traveling with Shalom said the concerns about destabilization in the region were unfounded. The Palestinian Authority is well equipped to deal with Hamas, the official said, noting that the authority has 22,000 men under arms in the Gaza Strip, as opposed to about 1,000 loyal to Hamas.
"Whatever the pictures show you - the protests, the riots - it won't influence what's happening in Gaza," he said.
Israel's friends on Capitol Hill agreed. Democrats, mindful of election-year pressure to outflank Bush on support for Israel, took the initiative.
Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) was on vacation, but a spokesman said Yassin's history couldn't be ignored.
"It's important to re-member that Sheik Yassin was responsible for or-ganizing dozens of deadly terror attacks in Israel," Mark Kornblau told JTA.
Democratic Reps. Eliot Engel and Anthony Weiner of New York, and Shelley Berkley of Nevada, issued statements supporting the strike on Yassin. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) told a United Jewish Communities gathering March 23 in Washington that Americans should stand up for Israel's right to defend itself, "including going after those who direct" terrorism.
Officials at pro-Israel groups minimized the administration criticism and said they didn't expect it to last.
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