Abdel-Aziz al-Rantisi assasinated.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Abdel-Aziz al-Rantisi assasinated.
8
Sat, 04-17-2004 - 7:12pm
Rantisi chose open defiance rather than a life in hiding.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=512525


Palestinian terrorist leader:
From the Gaza refugee camps he vowed the destruction of Israel.

It is less than a month since Abdel-Aziz al-Rantisi became the most senior figure in Hamas, taking over from his assassinated predecessor Ahmed Yassin. But he was a already a marked man.


Rantisi, a founding member of the hard-line Palestinian group and a forceful opponent of compromise with Israel, survived an attempt to kill him last June, when three Apache helicopters fired rockets at his car. It was destroyed and two bystanders were killed, but he walked away.


Rantisi's has been at the top of Israel's assassination list since Yassin died in a missile strike in Gaza City last month. Israeli security sources said four drones had been continuously patrolling the skies before they finally found him yesterday.


An Egyptian-trained paediatrician, Rantisi, 56, had long depicted himself as a Hamas politician with no links to the military wing. Israel refused to accept the distinction, saying he was an influential decision-maker.


As a Hamas spokesman, he issued frequent vows of revenge for Israel's killing of militants - albeit in calm even tones - from his modestly furnished Gaza home.


"We will fight them until the liberation of Palestine, the whole of Palestine," he told thousands of Hamas supporters after Yassin was killed.


Rantisi's approach won him many admirers among younger Palestinians. He consistently argued they have a right to resist Israel by any and all means, including suicide bombings.


A devout Muslim and father of six, Rantisi had been known to interrupt interviews for his daily prayers. But his Western suits and near-fluent English made him media-friendly enough to command air time on CNN and the BBC.


He born near what is now Israel's coastal city of Ashkelon, but Rantisi was one of thousands of Arabs displaced during the war that led to the creation of the Jewish state in 1948. He grew up on the Gaza Strip, in the Khan Younis refugee camp.


He returned to Gaza after medical training in Egypt, and in 1987 helped found Hamas. He was jailed on and off for years by Israel for his role in the first intifada that began the same year.


Since the start of the latest uprising, he played a major role in building Hamas's support, often at the expense of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and his mainstream Fatah faction.


Rantisi refused to go into hiding, despite the assassination of Yassin. "We will all die one day. Nothing will change. If by Apache or by cardiac arrest, I prefer Apache," he said last month.

cl-Libraone~

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2004
Mon, 04-19-2004 - 8:56am
Kerry: Rantisi's killing was justified

By JANINE ZACHARIA


US Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said on Sunday Israel's killing of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi was justified because Israel "has every right in the world to respond to any act of terror against it."

"Hamas is a terrorist, brutal organization," he told NBC's Meet the Press.

"It has had years to make up its mind to take part in a peaceful process. They refuse to ... and I support Israel's efforts to try to separate itself and to try to be secure."


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Mon, 04-19-2004 - 11:30am
<<"We will all die one day. Nothing will change. If by Apache or by cardiac arrest, I prefer Apache," he said last month>>

We should all have such options--to chose the means of our death.

Avatar for independentgrrrl
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 04-19-2004 - 11:50am
<<"We will all die one day. Nothing will change. If by Apache or by cardiac arrest, I prefer Apache," he said last month>>

Apparently, Rantisi didn't believe the same applied to the innocent victims of Hamas. He was arrogant until his death.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2004
Mon, 04-19-2004 - 11:51am
You can always become a terrorist and choose this option for yourself.
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Mon, 04-19-2004 - 11:51am
Rantisi is a fine example for us all; if only we were as noble and principled.

What ARE you thinking???

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2004
Mon, 04-19-2004 - 11:54am
These implications seem to be that this man is in some way honorable. Unbelievable. I told my dad that I'm glad that I don't have to identify with the "side" that empathizes with terrorists and tries to defeat my own country at a time of war...
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2004
Mon, 04-19-2004 - 11:55am
Really!!! This blew my mind, too.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 04-21-2004 - 11:19am

 


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