Israeli terrorism

The blatant act of Israeli state terrorism on Saturday, which claimed the life of the Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, along with two of his bodyguards, yet again shows that the Zionist state cannot be expected to respect international law as long as it has the backing of Washington.
When it assassinated the Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Yassin, and his aides less than a month ago (March 22), the entire international community, including the UN Secretary General, the EU, and Britain had strongly condemned the murders. Only the US had refrained from censuring its protege.
In fact, US National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice had tried to justify Sharon's act of terror, saying "Hamas is a terrorist organisation, and Sheikh Yassin has probably been involved in a lot of terrorist activity himself." Of course, selective amnesia prevented her from recalling that whereas Yassin was "probably" involved in terrorist activity, Sharon had been actually found guilty by an Israeli court of having been involved in the massacre of nearly 2000 Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut during the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon. Sharon has a lot of Palestinian blood on his hands.
Once again, the international community has strongly condemned Sharon's latest murders, and the US has tried to justify them as Israel's right to self-defence.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei voiced a common opinion in the Arab and Muslim world when he said that Rantissi's assassination is "a direct result" of US support for the Jewish state.
As it happened, only three days before the newest outrage, US President George W Bush had given his backing to Ariel Sharon's unilateral peace plan, and told him he could keep "some" of the Palestinian lands on the West Bank, and further that the Palestinian refugees did not have the right to return to their ancestral homes as part of a final status agreement.
Ever-since he came to power three years ago, after having triggered Palestinian Intifada, Sharon has been working on his own plan. Which is to kill the resistance leaders and impose a solution of his choosing on the Palestinians.
He has killed scores of resistance leaders in what he unabashedly calls targeted assassinations. He has even been threatening to eliminate Yasser Arafat.
The assassination of the two top Hamas' leaders and the unilateral plan for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that he just unveiled in Washington, are part of the same scheme. All he needs to implement it is the US support, which is readily available.
Notably, the other members of the Middle East Peace Quartet - the UN, the European Union, and Russia - all have been expressing concern over Bush's backing of the Sharon plan.
As pointed out earlier, they have also strongly criticised the targeted assassinations of Sheikh Yassin and Rantissi. Reacting to Rantissi's murder on Saturday British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw averred that "the British government has made it repeatedly clear that the so-called targeted assassinations of this kind are unlawful, unjustified and counterproductive."
His words are impressive, but it is not enough to condemn these criminal acts and do nothing to stop Israel from subjecting the hapless Palestinians to mindless violence to perpetuate its occupation of the Arab lands.
They must intervene on the side of justice and international law. Rather than to leave everything to the US, the other three members of the ME Quartet must play a proactive role in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.
While Hamas has chosen a new leader, deciding to keep him anonymous this time, some 200,000 Palestinians who participated in Rantissi's funeral rites on Sunday, vowed to take revenge. Which may not take long to come.
It is in the interest of Israeli people themselves to rethink if they can get the peace and security they long for by killing Palestinians and denying them their just rights or that they would be better off vacating occupation, which is the root cause of the unending cycles of violence.