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Tracking The Terrorists
Local Reaction
Jewish leaders address Israel's assassination of the leader of Hamas.
117
hen Israel killed Hamas founder Sheik
Ahmed Yassin March 22 in a helicopter
airstrike, it also unleashed a firestorm of
reactions worldwide, including those in
Detroit's Jewish community.
Whether the action was applauded or condemned,
most agreed Israelis and Jews in the diaspora would feel
repercussions.
"Hamas will try to do some terrorist attacks and we
will try to prevent it, and that's it — very simple," said
Israel Defense Forces Col. Zohar Palti, visiting military
fellow at the Washington (D.C.) Institute for Near
East Policy.
Israel's security level will increase for the short term,
but it will affect Hamas more in the long term, said
Col. Palti, who recently visited Detroit to speak about
security concerns.
And Israel knows what kind of organization it's deal-
ing with, he said.
"Nothing will surprise us if they try something new,"
said Col. Palti, who served as head of the IDF Counter
Terrorism Arena from July 2000 to July 2003.
They tried to blow up the port, to kill the prime
minister, to try to take the Knesset building down,
they tried to use cyanide in cinemas ," he said. "They
tried to do everything in the past and probably Yassin
was behind it.
"I don't think Hamas will be able to change its
whole perspective and go after Americans. They want
to retaliate against Israel. This has always been its agen-
da."
Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg of the Sara Tugman Bais
Chabad Torah Center in West Bloomfield feels Israel
was justified in its actions against Yassin.
"I don't think there is a question in anyone's mind
that this man deserved to be killed," the rabbi said.
"Everyone in the free world knows this man was a seri-
al killer or was the inspiration behind the killing of
untold numbers of Jewish people.
"Last week, we had the Spanish response to terror.
This week, we had the Jewish response. The Spanish
response to their people being murdered by barbarians
was to reward them by voting out the party that was
willing to fight terrorism.
,
Rabbi -Silberberg
3/26
2004
18
Allan Gale
"The Jewish response to terror was to defang the ser-
pent."
Rabbi Silberberg also feels strongly about the contin-
ued need to visit Israel. "We need to keep on going to
Israel," he said. "I am leading a mission to Israel this
July. I have a daughter in seminary in Tsfat. If we don't
keep visiting Israel or if we bring our children home,
we are giving in to terror and rewarding terror in the
same way the Spanish citizens did."
Bloody Hands
Calling Yassin one of the dominant authorities of inter-
national terrorism, Israel's Deputy Consul General to
the Midwest David Roet said, "His hands are filled
with the blood of almost 400 Israelis.
"He has the very unhonorable distinction of being
the person who gave the first fatwa, or religious
approval, to suicide bombing," said Roet, speaking
from his Chicago office. "He's guilty for human rights
violations by his own admission.'
Roet did not see the U.S. reaction as critical of Israel,
but he was very worried about the remarks from many
world leaders and from the U.N. concerning the attacks.
"I can only use one word, chutzpah," he said. "I
find it unbelievable that these countries would preach
to Israel on killing the founder of one of the worst ter
rorist organizations in the world."
However, some feel that Yassin's murder was not the
righ t thing for Israel to do.
"I think it's a terrible mistake on Israel's part," said
Ron Stockton, University of Michigan-Dearborn pro-
fessor who teaches a course on the Middle East. "You
have an old, feeble man who was nearly deaf and blind
and quadriplegic, who could hardly speak above a
whisper — he was a hero to the people of Gaza and
unlikely he was involved in any operational activities.
"Sheik Yassin was a man who lived in the same
neighborhood where he grew up, unlike so many other
leaders. He lived in a very modest house. No
Palestinian thought he was acting for anything but
what he thought was right.
"Killing him will probably produce very little benefit
for the Israelis," Stockton predicted. "In spite of his
harsh criticisms of Israel and of the Jewish . state and his
Rabbi Wine
attacks on it, he was, within the Hamas context, a
restraining figure.
"Removing him will allow more extremist elements
to rise. It will also generate mass mobilization of volun-
teers for revenge operations.
"The newspapers report that 200,000 people attend-
ed his funeral. Many of them are blaming the United
States directly and this could have severe consequences
for our own country and our own people.
"The sheik always insisted that Hamas operations be
limited to their homeland and not target Jews over-
seas," Stockton said. "With his death, those more
extremist elements are no longer restrained. I fear that
Jews overseas are now at risk."
Rabbi Sherwin Wine, rabbi emeritus of the
Birmingham Temple in Farmington Hills, agreed.
"The assassination was a mistake because it will trigger
a cycle of revenge," Rabbi Wine said. "He is a major
religious symbol — in some ways, its like killing the
Pope. •
"Obviously, Hamas is an enemy of Israel. But killing
its leader is no solution. What they need to do is to get
back to the conference table.
"Whoever engineered this does not want peace."
Allan Gale, associate director, Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit, disagrees with that
last statement, seeing Israel as fighting for survival.
"An Israeli military spokesman recently said Israel is
engaged in an armed conflict, short of war,' Gale said.
"Sheik Yassin and his Hamas movement are a main
element of that conflict. What differentiates Yassin and
Hamas from other combatants in other conflicts is
their unflinchable goal — no cease-fire,.no compro-
mise, no- negotiations to end the conflict; nothing short
of the destruction of Israel.
"Israelis and Jews worldwide now wait for 'the other
shoe to drop.' But as Prime Minister Sharon has said,
`There is no cycle of violence; there is only Palestinian
terrorism and Israel's actions to stop the terror.'
"If the Palestinians cease the violence, the confronta-
tions would end immediately, and Israel would return
to the negotiating table." ❑
JN Staff Writers Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Harry
Kirsbaum and Sharon Luckerman, and Story Develop-
ment Editor Keri Guten Cohen contributed to this report.
David Roet