I agree that a message must be sent... and I also agree this man needed to be rubbed out and he got what he deserved...
The problem is in the way the message was sent...
With a spectacular public execution you may see a powerfull "don't mess with us" message... but to a bunch of crazies who are ready to strap explosives to themselves and kill civilians, you gave them publicity you can't buy, an ideal martyr and a encouraged them to follow their leader into martyrdom. There is no doubt a lot of innocent folks will die...
My personal opinion is that the dude should have been assasinated quietly... poisonned in his sleep... something like that... no "glorious death", no publicity, no honour. Of course this is only my opinion... for what it's worth.
What I find worrying is that he was well known and well "calculated risk" by Israelli and US intel, they knew what to expect from him. He's now being replaced by unstable hardliner crackpots like Abdel al-Rantissi... that can get ugly...
Red