>In today's NYT, James Bennet writes:
>
>>Previous killings by Israel of leaders of Hamas have preceded
>>spikes in the violence here. Israel maintains that such
>>targeted killings, which Palestinians call assassinations,
>>are essential to its self-defense.
>
>American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed.:
>
>>as-sas-si-nate 1. To murder (a prominent person) by surprise
>>attack, as for political reasons[.....]
>
>Those Palestinians will say anything!
The vicious propagandists. To be fair to Bennet (who, as Times reporters go, is not so terrible), this helpful distinction does seem to be the Times' consistent policy. Consistently applied to Israel, that is: Hamas is never said to carry out targeted killings. Israeli media handles this the opposite way, by calling them assassinations and placing "targeted killings" in (usually sardonic) quotes.
What's missing from Bennet's report, and all the others I've read, is a reference to this, which occurred Monday morning or afternoon:
>Hamas to Consider Halting Attacks if Israel Leaves
>By REUTERS
>Filed at 1:10 p.m. ET
>
>GAZA (Reuters) - The founder of the Palestinian Muslim
>militant group Hamas said Monday it would consider halting
>suicide attacks on Israelis if Israel withdrew from West Bank
>cities and took other measures.
>``Basically what I would say to the occupation army is to
>leave ... the Palestinian cities in all the West Bank that
>were occupied ...,'' Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed
>Yassin told reporters in the Gaza Strip.
>``And stop your aggression, demolishing homes. Release
>prisoners and stop assassinations. Once the occupation and all
>those measures against our people stop, we are ready to
>totally study stopping martyrdom operations, in a positive
>way.''
Apparently the decision to assassinate Shehada was made Monday night:
[from Ha'aretz]
>Ben-Eliezer was in England Monday night when the possibility
of targeting Shehada in an air strike was raised. Prior to his
>departure for Israel, his military secretary, Brigadier
>General Mike Herzog, informed him of the prospects of hitting
>Shehada, and noted that the chances of civilian casualties
>were slim. Ben-Eliezer approved the plan, and his agreement
>was passed on to Sharon. Sharon received a more detailed
>report from the IDF on the planned operation, and approved its
>implementation. The approval procedure was quick, so as to
>take advantage of the "operational opportunity."
So this would be at least the third time that Israel has responded to Hamas' ending the violence, or making noises about doing so, with assassination or other provocation. I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that.
Eric