: Other Foot Drops With Rantisi Assassination: What Happens Now?

Many on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict expected it, but not quite so soon. This weekend’s missile attack on Hamas leader Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi happened before the group could take revenge for the killing a few weeks ago of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin – and only a few days after Israeli PM Ariel Sharon got President Bush to discard decades of US policy towards Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Along with all the typical “raging Palestinians” commentary, this triple-shock to the status quo has led many analysts to the conclusion that all bets are off regarding the future of the Israeli/Palestinian relationship. (While some have opined that the US shift to Sharon’s position gave a “green light” to the Rantisi assassination, the truth is that the US never really had a “red light” – witness the same weak “show restraint, pretty please” statement given after this and previous killings.) While the world (outside of the US) has been unanimous in its position of the illegality of settlements (as well as on Rantisi’s killing), none has ever offered any substantive action to counter the increase in settlement activity or US support of it. And little on the US side will change regardless of who wins the November elections, as Democratic candidate John Kerry made abundantly clear during interviews on Sunday that revealed a lock-step position on Israel/Palestine. So with the “road map” burned to a crisp, serious doubts about Sharon’s Gaza intentions (and few doubts about his West Bank ones), and both presidential candidates in agreement, the only sure thing is a downward slide.

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.