In the Guardian today, leading "left" Zionist Jonathan Freedland suggests that Sharon had Sheikh Yassin killed because he wants to be seen to be taking a hard line before withdrawing from Gaza. Though he doesn't say so this would compare to Freedland's hero - Shimon Peres's massacre at Qana back in 1996. It is true that Sharon is emulating "left" Zionist policy lately. The ghetto wall was an idea first mooted by right Zionist Jabotinsky but the placing of it to segregate Jewish colonisers from native Arabs within Palestine is a Zionist "left" idea. Incidentally the wall is causing malnutrition in parts of occupied Palestine. One is reminded of the unnamed Israeli commander telling his troops to study the Nazi liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto so that they would know how to deal with the refugee camps.

Gilad Atzmon's article (below) offers the more likely explanation of the assassination of Sheikh Yassin. Sharon is gearing up for the final expulsion of the Palestinian people.