reprisals

Found via Vodkapundit. David Warren comments on the necessity of Yassin’s assassination:

On the moral question, whether it was right for the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, to order the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, there is no difference from the question whether it would be right to assassinate Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden co-founded Al Qaeda, Yassin founded Hamas. These are organizations which exist for the express purpose of killing people; Qaeda being committed to killing “Crusaders and Zionists” plus bystanders; Hamas more specifically Jews plus bystanders. The question is not whether one should do it, but how.

On the tactical question — why now? — there can be a variety of views. We will see what the consequences will be. In the short run, a great deal of excitement, not only in the Palestinian territories but throughout the Arab world. Al Jazeera, the Jihad-friendly satellite TV network based in Qatar, has been running a poll of viewers in which they are asked whether Palestinian reprisals should be confined to Israel, or “expanded”. At the time of writing, the results are breaking 61 to 39 per cent in favour of the more general conflagration. Note the poll’s assumption that 100 per cent of voters will favour reprisals.