Peter, Thank you for this. I agree with all of it but would add a couple of things. First, when a state assumes the right to assassinate leaders it does not like, it loses the right to morally object when other states take the same course in respect to it. Could Israel really express moral outrage if Netanyahu or Ben-Gvir or Smotrich wer…
Peter, Thank you for this. I agree with all of it but would add a couple of things. First, when a state assumes the right to assassinate leaders it does not like, it loses the right to morally object when other states take the same course in respect to it. Could Israel really express moral outrage if Netanyahu or Ben-Gvir or Smotrich were assassinated by Palestinians? Of course, it could be objected that the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah are not leaders of states but were non-state actors. Still, they were seen as leaders by many Palestinians and that is what counts.
Second, I do not think it is an accident that Israel's recent assassinations have been of men who were actually or potentially interlocutors with Israel. This was particularly true of Ismail Haniyeh (probably misspelling his name) who was a policy guy, not a military leader, and trying to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza. Let's see this for what it is: part of the goal of having endless war against the Palestinians and the countries supporting them. I do not think that is a cynical view but what one can infer from Israeli actions.
Third, I think if is of interest and relevance that the US passed a law in 1975, signed into law by Gerald R. Ford, making it illegal for US government officials to carry out assassinations of foreign leaders. This showed understanding of what is not acceptable if one wants a world operating under certain moral and legal restraints, not the law of the jungle.
Peter, Thank you for this. I agree with all of it but would add a couple of things. First, when a state assumes the right to assassinate leaders it does not like, it loses the right to morally object when other states take the same course in respect to it. Could Israel really express moral outrage if Netanyahu or Ben-Gvir or Smotrich were assassinated by Palestinians? Of course, it could be objected that the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah are not leaders of states but were non-state actors. Still, they were seen as leaders by many Palestinians and that is what counts.
Second, I do not think it is an accident that Israel's recent assassinations have been of men who were actually or potentially interlocutors with Israel. This was particularly true of Ismail Haniyeh (probably misspelling his name) who was a policy guy, not a military leader, and trying to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza. Let's see this for what it is: part of the goal of having endless war against the Palestinians and the countries supporting them. I do not think that is a cynical view but what one can infer from Israeli actions.
Third, I think if is of interest and relevance that the US passed a law in 1975, signed into law by Gerald R. Ford, making it illegal for US government officials to carry out assassinations of foreign leaders. This showed understanding of what is not acceptable if one wants a world operating under certain moral and legal restraints, not the law of the jungle.