Yassin was no holy man

Ahmed Yassin was known as a sheik, but he was not a religious authority. He was given the title out of respect.

But the man Hamas members showed so much respect for had little respect for them.

He asked young Palestinian boys to strap bombs on their bodies and blow up Israeli civilians — and themselves as well.

He even enjoined women to join this "holy jihad" mission. In an interview he explained, "Hamas views women as the reserve force ... when the military wing of the Hamas saw it necessary to use a woman to carry out an attack, it did so."

Around the world he was considered "a moderate spiritual leader," but there was nothing moderate about the arch-terrorist. The Jewish state claims that he directed Hamas in more than 400 attacks that ultimately killed 377 Israelis.

• He inspired and approved the March 14 double-suicide bombing at Ashdod in which 10 were murdered. And it was evident that Hamas was planning a mega-terror attack, seeking to blow up a chemical plant that would have taken an untold number of lives.

• He supported the June 18, 2002 attack on a Jerusalem bus in which 19 were murdered, many of them children.

• He was behind the March 27, 2002 Passover massacre in Netanya where 30 were killed and 174 injured.

• The Dolphinarium suicide bombing, at a discotheque in Tel Aviv, which killed 21 young people, was also the handiwork of Hamas and Yassin.

Yassin was no holy man, and no man of peace. His clerical garb cloaked the blood of hundreds that was on his hands. The man who rejected the Bush "road map" had no intention of ever sitting across a negotiating table. He was simply a terrorist in the same category as Osama bin Laden.

If U.S. troops were to find bin Laden in a house or at a mosque and blow that place to bits, how many people in America or around the world would register their complaints? Very few.

Yet why are so many appalled over Israel's killing of Yassin on Monday, March 22?

No doubt, Yassin was working on another plan to accomplish in Israel what the World Trade Center bombings did in America.

Sounds like al-Qaida? We think so.

It's sad that Israel had to target him for assassination. If only it could have simply captured Yassin.

But war does not always afford nonviolent arrests.

We, like so many others, hope that Hamas fails in its attempts to retaliate against Israel or bring terrorism to the streets of America.

But in the meantime we must be as vigilant and as prepared as Israel troops are now.

Israel has sent a strong message to militant Palestinian leaders — they could be next. If only that message were heeded, then peace talks would be possible.