Why Sharon Did it

The New York Post has an opinion column by Amir Taheri with that heading and goes on to explain his reason why Sharon OK'd the killing of Ahmed Yassin, the former head of Hamas.

Taheri's view comes to this, if Sharon does plan to pull out of Gaza like he has said he will do, he needs to insure Israel is seen to withdraw because it chooses to and not because Hamas and the other terrorist groups forced it to.

This appears to be a reasonable view and if true, then we can expect to see more attacks on Hamas' leadership. Yahoo news is carrying an article today saying Israel is now threatening to kill the entire Hamas leadership and will be willing to expand it to other terrorist groups and PLO factions that attack Israel or Israelis.

If Israel does eliminate the entire Hamas leadership, it would effectively make the organization a non entity. Since there isn't a training system available anymore to train up replacement leaders (can't go to Afghanistan, paid for by Saddam to learn how to be a terrorist), the remaining members may be motivated, but untrained on how to keep the organization going and it will become more like a gang which can be handled in a law enforcement manner.

With the new Hamas leader, a Pediatrician, vowing new and larger attacks, expect Israel to strike sooner the later if it wants to eliminate the Hamas leadership.