Why did Bush give Israel a green light to assassinate Hamas leader Rantisi?
The question that must be asked is not if, but why Washington gave either explicit or tacit approval for the April 17 assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi by an Israeli gunship. In the face of vocal criticism from the Arab states, President Bush’s National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was obliged to deny having received advance warning of the assassination. But this is barely credible, given that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in intensive discussions with Bush only three days earlier. Even if the specific intent had not been made known, the US knew that such actions had taken place before and would take place again. Yet, Bush never warned Sharon against further assassinations or threatened him with serious consequences, as he could easily have done. Instead, the US once again stood virtually alone in failing to issue so much as a formal condemnation of the assassination, stressing, as it did last month in relation to the killing of al-Rantisi’s predecessor
