Rob Blackhurst

Published 19 April 2004

If anyone doubted Israel's determination to impose its own order on Palestine, its assassination of the new Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantissi, a month after the killing of his predecessor, should have made it abundantly clear. Emboldened by President Bush's support for his plans for unilateral disengagement, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli PM, has acted quickly to secure his advantage on the ground.

If anyone doubted Israel's determination to impose its own order on Palestine, its assassination of the new Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantissi, a month after the killing of his predecessor, should have made it abundantly clear. Emboldened by President Bush's support for his plans for unilateral disengagement, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli PM, has acted quickly to secure his advantage on the ground.

The security excuse for these illegal killings is that Hamas must not be allowed to fill a power vacuum in Gaza when Israel pulls out next year. But it is more likely that Mr Sharon is motivated by political concerns: he wants to bolster his hardline credentials before his evacuation plan is voted on by 200,000 Likud party members next month. He is vulnerable to attacks from the far right that by pulling out the tanks he is rewarding terrorists.

Not that the right should be concerned at Sharon's direction. Far from providing a "route to the road-map" as a panglossian Mr Blair claimed last week, the plan to withdraw from Gaza is a substitute for negotiation. Sharon believes that he can impose peace on the Palestinians by removing the army and 7,500 Jewish settlers in Gaza, salami-slicing the West Bank to prevent the emergence of a viable Palestinian state, and retreating behind a security fence. The withdrawal is motivated more by demography than dovishness - within its current expanded borders, Israel will soon be a minority Jewish state and have to abandon either democracy or its status as a Jewish national home.

The immediate response to the latest killing was the usual vows of "100 retaliations" from the Palestinians and the same carefully calibrated criticism from the international community. The United States alone declined to criticise Israel's action, but Downing Street's silence - leaving Jack Straw to issue the usual disapproval - gave an equivocal signal. After the assassination of Sheikh Yassin, Britain abstained on a UN resolution criticising Israel. It would send a powerful sign that international law must be upheld if, when a repeat resolution is proposed this week, Britain and other European countries were to offer their support.