Word: yassin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Even before he was killed by an Israeli missile things had not been going well for Hamas military commander Salah Shehade. His movement's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, had begun publicly discussing a halt to attacks on Israelis in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from West Bank towns, an end to assassinations and the release of prisoners. The idea of halting "martyrdom" operations was anathema to Shehade and other hard-liners in Gaza and the West Bank, and they were faced with making the case that their aims could only be achieved through violence. But any emerging debate...
...retire, the menu of likely successors, if chosen democratically, is hardly palatable to Washington. The most popular current Palestinian leaders, after Arafat, are Marwan Barghouti, the West Bank Fatah chief currently in an Israeli prison for his role in directing the Tanzim militias in this intifada, and Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the blind spiritual leader of Hamas. The moderate negotiators from Arafat's inner circle such as Mahmoud Abbas (a.k.a. Abu Mazen) and Ahmed Qurei (a.k.a. Abu Ala) are aging and in ill health, and their intimate involvement in the failed Oslo process has made them magnets for considerable Palestinian rage...
...Middle East, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent out officials to seek backing from Arab countries in case of a possible American attack. Vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council Izzat Ibrahim went to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, while Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz were sent to other regional capitals...
...cracked down. He arrested hundreds of militants and removed firebrand Hamas preachers from their mosques in 1996, after a torrent of suicide bombings nearly undid the Oslo accords. When Hamas militants car-bombed a bus filled with settler schoolchildren in 1998, setting off another crisis with Israel, Arafat put Yassin under house arrest. Both times, though, Hamas' popular support was at a low ebb among Palestinians who believed peace negotiations would prove fruitful...
...matter what Arafat may do, Hamas remains a danger to everyone engaged in the Middle East. Sheik Yassin can be shut up in his house for a while; hundreds of rank and file can be made to serve jail time. Even the zeal that drives Hamas to kill civilians may be tamped down for a time. But never, it seems, for good. Already, sources in the Hamas military wing tell TIME, somewhere in a Hamas safe house, militants inflamed by the American war in Afghanistan are debating whether it is time to add U.S. targets in Israel and the territories...