The news arrived with another e-mail from Gush Shalom. I gasped. I know exactly - and how I wish I were mistaken, but I cannot hide my head in the sand - I know that with the assasination of Sheik Yassin we've left The Realm of (measured) Hope. If you have not yet visited Gush Shalom's site, here is Uri Avneri's commentary on this fateful act copied in full:
Avnery: "It is Worse than a Crime, it is Stupid!"
"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.
"This act will not only endanger the personal security of every Israeli, both in the country and around the world, but also the existential security of the State of Israel. It has grievously hurt the chances of putting and end to the Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Muslim conflicts."
Adds Gush Shalom: Avnery mentioned that in the early 1980s the occupation authorities encouraged the founders of Hamas, hoping that they would create a counter-weight to Yasser Arafat and the PLO. Even after the start of the first intifada, the army and the security services gave preferential treatment of Hamas. Sheikh Yassin was arrested only a year after the outbreak.
"There seems to be no limit to the stupidity of our political and military leaders. They endanger the future of the State of Israel."
Will the coming Peace Now demonstration mark a turning point?
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