Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (“Sharon not the man to incite a peace process,” March 23), dubbed “Israel’s Bin Laden,” was the military and spiritual leader of the terror war against Israel.

Since September 2000, Yassin’s organization Hamas perpetrated 425 attacks, killing hundreds of Israeli civilians. Yassin preached to his followers that Israel has no place in the Middle East, that it should be annihilated through armed struggle and replaced by an Islamic state.

Following his Fatwa (Islamic religious ruling) that allows women to become suicidebombers, dozens of Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinian female bombers. Yassin used to say: “Jihad [against Jews] is an obligation of all Muslims, men and women.” Yassin’s cruelty was evident several years ago, in the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers which he ordered from his prison cell in Israel.

When the mother of one of the soldiers came to his cell and pleaded with him to spare her son’s life, the Sheikh burst into uncontrollable laughter. Soon afterward, both soldiers were executed.

Moreover, Yassin was responsible for brainwashing an entire generation of Palestinian youth to believe that the most noble goal in life is to kill themselves and as many Israelis as possible, and thereby be elevated to the admirable status of a Shaheed (martyr). He was one of the creators of the culture of death and murder in today’s Palestinian society.

Undoubtedly, many Israeli and Palestinian lives have been spared as a result of Yassin’s death.

With regard to the political choices Israelis should make: Prime Minister Sharon was elected as a result of the deep disappointment of the Israeli electorate in the previous Israeli leadership which proved tragically na‹ve in the trust it placed in the Palestinian leadership.

In 2000, Arafat rejected a bold Israeli peace offer that included the establishment of a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of Gaza. Arafat made no counteroffer but instead went on to unleash the intifada, a vicious campaign of terror against Israeli civilians.

Following 3.5 years of relentless Palestinian terrorism, Sharon might be the only Israeli leader who has enough clout and respect in the eyes of the now sober Israeli public to be able to make the painful and risky concessions Israel has always been willing to make in order to achieve peace with her neighbors.

Pnina Luban

Alumnus

Ames