It's the Stupidity, Stupid

Uri Avnery, noted Israeli peace activist, writer, and former Knesset member, has this to say about the assassination of Yassin:

This is the beginning of a new chapter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It moves the conflict from the level of a solvable national conflict to the level of religious conflict, which by its very nature is insoluble.

The fate of the State of Israel is now in the hands of group of persons whose outlook is primitive and whose perceptions are retarded. They are incapable of understanding the mental, emotional and political dimensions of the conflict. This is a group of bankrupt political and military leaders who have failed in all their actions. They try to cover up their failures by a catastrophic escalation.

Already, the Israeli press sees the potential for retaliation--but not just within the confines of the Israeli state (Billmon provided the link):

Those who thought that killing Sheikh Ahmed Yassin would serve as a deterrent are mistaken, Dr. Reuven Paz, director of the project for the research of Islamist movements (PRISM), GLORIA Center, the Interdisciplinary Institute of Herzliya, told The Jerusalem Post

Paz warned that Yassin's demise could have severe repercussions not only in Israel, but will cause reactions throughout the entire Muslim world and lead to attacks against Israelis and Jews abroad.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why some politicians, particularly conservative heads of state, are obsessed with killing people. Yes, Yassim was associated with Hamas (so was the Israeli state, by the way--they thought Hamas could take some of the wind out of Arafat's sails). But to ignore the possibility of repurcussions is unbelievably dumb. Sharon didn't sign the death warrant just for Yassin. He signed death warrants for a number of people, be they Jewish, Arab, or neither (but unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time). I don't know--maybe people like Sharon have issues with their manhood or something...because he's certainly not thinking this through.