Walter Russell Mead - In death as in life, OBL ruined whatever he touched — but did more damage to those he claimed as friends than to those he claimed to hate

Osama certainly didn’t intend to do Israel any favors, but it is another sign of the curse under which he lived that his death has given the Jewish state a badly needed diplomatic victory.  In a statement that was one of the most serious of the many self-inflicted wounds to the Palestinian national cause, the ‘administrative head’ of the Hamas authority in Gaza condemned the attack and called OBL a “holy warrior”.  Suddenly, it is much, much easier for Israel to resist negotiating with the ‘unified’ Palestinian movement and much, much harder to pressure the Jewish state to embrace a coalition that includes Hamas.  In death as in life, OBL ruined whatever he touched — but did more damage to those he claimed as friends than to those he claimed to hate.

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