Israel killed off more than just the second-most popular Palestinian leader with a missile strike on Monday.
It also finally finished off President Bush's already tattered road map for creating a Palestinian state, a plan that was essential to his vision of a terror-free Middle East.
And by assassinating - rather than simply arresting and trying the Islamic leader of the group Hamas - Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Israel further erodes its role as a model of democratic and civil principles to the Arab world.