IT is difficult to comprehend Israel's reasoning behind the killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin outside a Gaza City mosque.

He stood accused by Israel of being the mastermind of Palestinian terror, who had on his hands the blood of the victims of the suicide bombers.

But there can be no political, military or diplomatic gain from his brutal extermination.

Making a martyr out of a frail 80-year-old, blind and confined to a wheelchair, will not end the cycle of tit-for-tat terror. It will not bring an end to the wave of suicide bombings. Instead, it will encourage more Palestinians to volunteer to sacrifice their lives for martyrdom.

The West's appeal for calm on both sides is likely to fall on deaf ears.

Inevitably there will be pressure from Palestinian militants for reprisals against Israel.

And in Israel the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is being described as a logical extension of the war against terror.

Consequently, criticism from within the US and British administrations was restrained. Perhaps, they were reflecting that they too would launch a missile attack by helicopter gunships if they had Osama bin Laden in their sights.

The assassination could spell the end for the US-sponsored road map for peace in the Middle East. The road map depends on the leaders of Palestine and Israel negotiating an agreement.

What hope for negotiations can there be when one of the parties is prepared to incur the wrath of the entire international community and the other party seems powerless to prevent indiscriminate acts of terrorism carried out on its behalf?

There is no doubt that this crisis in the Middle East is the source of the resentment behind much of the activity by international terrorists.

If the US and Britain are determined to confront terrorism, they should have the courage to take decisive political and diplomatic action to drag Israel and Palestine back to the negotiation table.