Middle East blood politics

Transcribed from the clipping

“Israel’s assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin was a spectacular setback to the peace process in the Middle East… The Jerusalem Post referred to Sheik Yassin as Israel’s Osama bin Laden in its justification of the move… While much of the world probably would exult in the death of Mr. bin Laden, the military assassination of an elderly and disabled cleric held in wide esteem has had the opposite effect. What fragile chance there was of reaching a peace settlement was badly shattered.… President George W. Bush needs to use all his clout to quiet the furor, bring the two sides back to the negotiating table and assure that Israel doesn’t have any further surprises in store. The trouble with this is that President Bush, like Mr. Sharon, is an unabashed unilateralist… But acts like the murder of Sheik Yassin only provide legitimacy to the organization and further the violence. That is not the road to peace.”

Context added by this archive

An editorial page reaches for his disability as a measure of how badly the killing will play. Yassin’s quadriplegia is not the subject of the sentence; it is the reason the paper expects the assassination to backfire. The standfirst above the column calls him an elderly, disabled Palestinian leader before it calls him anything else.

Cite this item

"Middle East blood politics," The Day, 21 March 2004. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2004-004. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2004-004

Elsewhere in the archive

Palestinians mourn Israel’s anniversary as the ‘Nakba’The Day · 16 May 2008 · the same newspaper
Israel, militants trade fire as Gaza death toll climbs to 24The Day · 7 August 2022 · the same newspaper
Israel: Motorist killed in West Bank held U.S. citizenshipThe Day · 1 March 2023 · the same newspaper
Refugee camp in Gaza hitThe Times Leader · 18 May 2004 · the same year
U.N. wants Israel to avow nukesWaco Tribune-Herald · 7 July 2004 · the same year
PORTRAITS: Palestinian painter has criticsAustin American Statesman · 2 September 2004 · the same year

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-2004-004.

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