Israel Matzav: IDF targets Mohammed Deif

Foreign reports indicate that the IDF took a shot at Hamas' Izz-a-Din-al-Qassam commander Mohammed Deif on Tuesday night. It was not the first time. Deif is apparently in hiding with the Hamas leadership, but two people in his house were killed and the house was likely destroyed.

This is from the first link.

Deif is considered the official who determines the agenda of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and is regarded as the “brain” behind Hamas.

He is likely hiding underground somewhere inside Gaza, fearing the IDF will try to eliminate him.

Deif started out as a student of Yahya Ayyash, who was nicknamed “the Engineer” and who was the chief bombmaker of Hamas in the late 1990s, when the organization started carrying out suicide bombing attacks within Israel. Ayyash was eliminated by Israel in 1996.

Following Ayyash’s elimination, Deif carried out numerous murderous terror attacks in Israel, including two suicide bombing attacks on buses in Jerusalem and kidnapping attempts within Israel.

Israel tried to kill Mohammed Deif several times, without success. One time, he lost an eye and likely his hand as well. In another attempt he was seriously wounded, his hands and legs were amputated and he has been confined to a wheelchair ever since.

Ayyash is the guy who answered his cell phone and had it blow his head off :-)

You can bet that when we get Deif, we will get the same reactions we got when the IDF eliminated Sheikh Ahmad Yassin: That we're going after poor old men in wheelchairs. Right.... 

Liberman Calls For Israel To Assassinate Hamas Leader Mashaal

FILE - Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal (C) and Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh (C-R) wave from the rooftop of a vehicle following Meshaal's arrival through the Egyptian-Gaza border in Rafah, Gaza Strip, 07 December 2012.  EPA

Jerusalem - Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said in a meeting of close associates that Israel should assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal despite the fact that he resides in Qatar, Channel 2 reported Monday.

According to the report, Liberman said in the meeting that killing Mashaal is the only way to ensure that further infiltration tunnels from Gaza to Israel will not be built in the future.

The foreign minister added that Mashaal was responsible for and had funded terror attacks which have killed hundreds of Israelis.

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Mashaal, the political bureau chief of the Palestinian Islamist group, was Hamas’ Jordanian branch chief in 1997, when Mossad agents poisoned him to death in an assassination attempt in Amman.

The Mossad agents were arrested by Jordanian authorities. King Hussein threatened to sever ties with Israel and to try the Mossad agents unless Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who ordered the assassination on Mashaal in retaliation for a suicide bombing committed in Jerusalem that year, turned over the antidote.

After some hesitation, Netanyahu relented, and Mashaal’s life was saved.

Raw Video: IDF Strike with Audio on Gaza Terrorists

IDF Pinpoint Strike on Hamas Commander's Explosives-Laden House

Palestinians in Gaza carry the body of slain Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari

IDF Pinpoint Strike on Ahmed Jabari, Head of Hamas Military Wing.

PMW: PMW Special Report on Operation Pillar of Defense #2 PA leaders condemn killing of Al-Ja'abari Official PA daily: "His self-sacrificing actions (i.e., terror attacks) will be told for generations to come and will be eternalized in memory"

Palestinian Authority leaders have condemned Israel's killing of Ahmed Al-Ja'abari, head of Hamas' military wing, which came as a response to Hamas' and other terrorist organizations' continuous rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas demanded that the "Arab countries in the Security Council discuss courses of action to end the [Israeli] aggression," while Prime Minister Salam Fayyad "called on the international community to do its duty, act immediately to stop this escalation [and] force Israel to stop its aggression."

Palestinian Media Watch has documented Al-Ja'abari's statements on killing Jews on the soil of Palestine "liberation of all of Palestine," rockets that can strike Israel and women's participation in Jihad.

In a headline, the PA's official daily referred to Al-Ja'abari's death as Shahada - Martyrdom death for Allah, calling it "the crowning achievement of his life of struggle." The article also said that "his self-sacrificing actions (i.e., terror attacks) will be told for generations to come and will be eternalized in memory." Likewise, Abbas' advisor Al-Aloul called Al-Ja'abari "the Martyr of the entire Palestinian people," whereas a host on official PA TV sent "condolences to all of the Palestinian people on his death as a Martyr (Shahid)."

Others, such as PLO Executive Committee member Saeb Erekat, demonized Israel by referring to an Israeli "policy of war and terror." Erekat stated in a press release: 

"The fact that Israel continues to kill and target our defenseless people in the Gaza Strip is nothing but the continuation of [its] policy of war and terror. We place sole responsibility on the Israeli government and demand that it stop spilling the blood of our people for the purpose of election campaigns."

Similarly, Israeli Arab member of Israeli Parliament Muhammad Barakeh said that "the Prime Minister of the occupation, Benjamin Netanyahu, has decided to strengthen his rule at the expense of Palestinian blood."

The following are the excerpts from the offical PA daily and PA TV:

Mahmoud Abbas:

Headline: "Eight Martyrs (Shahids), including Al-Ja'abari, and the aggression continues"

Sub-headlines: 

"The president calls upon the Security Council to stop the aggression"

"Egypt objects by recalling its ambassador in Tel Aviv"

"Obama looks for excuses for the Israeli aggression"

"Last night, President Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter to the current president of the Security Council (India)... demanding that it take action to stop the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip. The president charged ambassador Mansour [the Palestinian Permanent Observer to the UN] with contacting the representatives of the Arab countries in the Security Council, to discuss courses of action to end the aggression. The president condemned the aggression and warned of the severity of the current escalation. He demanded for it to be stopped immediately in order to save our people in the [Gaza] Strip from the calamities of war.

President Abbas called his Egyptian counterpart, Mohammed Morsi, and demanded that he make every effort to end the Israeli aggression in the [Gaza] Strip."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 15, 2012]

Official PA daily:

Headline: "The crowning achievement of his life of struggle was Shahada (i.e., Martyrdom death for Allah) - Flashes from the life of the fighter Ahmed Al-Ja'abari"

"Self-sacrificing fighter, the Martyr (Shahid) Ahmed Al-Ja'abari, was unique. Those close to him described him as likeable, serious and strict, to such an extent that some feared his surprise visits in disguise to the [military] posts of the Al-Qassam Brigades and the harsh punishments that he imposed on those who slacked off and didn't follow directions. Al-Ja'abari did not like to appear [in public], even though his name was heard in every corner and neighborhood in the Gaza Strip. Gaza residents did not exactly know what he looked like until he appeared [in 2011] with the Israeli soldier, the captive Gilad Shalit, during his transfer to the Egyptians through the Rafah Crossing. He knew well how to hide and perform tasks. After his commander [Muhammad] Deif was injured, he became the de facto commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades. In a short time, he managed to turn the Al-Qassam Brigades from a system of [separate] units into a military system. Al-Ja'abari (Abu Muhammad) vanished (i.e., died) when he was targeted by an Israeli reconnaissance aircraft, but his self-sacrificing actions (i.e., terror attacks) will be told for generations to come and will be eternalized in memory."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 15, 2012]

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad: 

Headline: "Prime Minister condemns the Israeli military escalation and the policy of assassinations" 

"Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned the Israeli military escalation and the policy of assassinations against our people in the Gaza Strip, which brought about the deaths of Martyrs (Shahids) and injured many among the residents... Fayyad called on the international community to do its duty, act immediately to stop this escalation, force Israel to stop its aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip and offer them protection."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 15, 2012]

Member of PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat:

Headline: "Erekat:  The war over the Gaza Strip is a continuation of [Israel's] policy of terror"

"Member of PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat, condemned [Israel's] latest attack and the assassination operations that the occupation army is carrying out in the Gaza Strip. He stated in a press release: 'The fact that Israel continues to kill and target our defenseless people in the Gaza Strip is nothing but the continuation of [its] policy of war and terror.' He added: 'We place sole responsibility on the Israeli government and demand that it stop spilling the blood of our people for the purpose of election campaigns.'"

 [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 15, 2012]

PA TV and Abbas' advisor Al-Aloul:

PA TV host: "Ahmed Al-Ja'abari was the commander of the Hamas movement. Condolences to all of the Palestinian people on his death as a Martyr (Shahid)."

Abbas' advisor Al-Aloul: "Condolences to all of us. He [Al-Ja'abari] is our Martyr and the Martyr of the entire Palestinian people."

[PA TV (Fatah), Nov. 14, 2012]

Israeli Arab MP, Muhammad Barakeh:

Headline: "Barakeh: Netanyahu has decided to strengthen his rule at the expense of Palestinian blood"

"Chairman of [Israeli party] Hadash and [Israeli-Arab] Member of the Israeli Parliament Muhammad Barakeh said yesterday evening [Nov. 14, 2012] that the Prime Minister of the occupation, Benjamin Netanyahu, has decided to strengthen his rule at the expense of Palestinian blood. He added that Netanyahu strives to stay in office and hinder the acceptance of the State of Palestine as a member of the UN. Barakeh added: 'The Netanyahu-Liberman-Barak government, along with the military establishment... knew what the best timing was to carry out the terrorist crime of assassination. It was preceded by a row of assassinations of [other] Palestinian activists as an attempt to draw a response from the Palestinian factions after which a broader attack [by Israel] against the Gaza Strip would follow.'"

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 15, 2012]

IDF, Hamas fight it out on TwitterFollowing the assassination of Ahmed Jabari, conflict spills over to the popular microblogging site

Following the assassination of the head of Hamas’s armed wingAhmed Jabari on Wednesday, the conflict between the IDF and the Gaza Strip-based Islamist group spilled over into the Twittersphere, where the official account of the al-Qassam Brigades posted a fiery retort to a warning issued by the IDF spokesperson to Hamas officials.

After the airstrike on Jabari, the army announced that it had launched a “widespread campaign on terror sites and operatives in the Gaza Strip, chief among them Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets.” Then, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office tweeted a warning to Hamas officials:

@IDFSpokesperson

IDF

We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.

about 3 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

Many users of the social networking site responded to the tweet, most prominently the official account of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas:

@AlqassamBrigade

Alqassam Brigades

@idfspokesperson Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves)

about 2 hours ago via Mobile WebReplyRetweetFavorite

The exchange received multiple retweets and comments, and novelist Hari Kunzru described it as the “first Twitter war.”

IDF Warning to Hamas: Don't Show Your Faces Above Ground IDF spokesman said there will be further military operations in the coming days and said he expects more rockets from Hamas

IDF spokesman, Brigadier General Yoav (Poly) Mordechai held a press conference Wednesday night and addressed the military operation in Gaza. He said the operation was launched "After a long period of several years of unbearable fire aimed at residents of the south, which has intensified even more in recent weeks, including launches aimed at communities in the South and attacks against IDF forces."

Mordechai said that so far, the IDF has attacked dozens of targets, and noted that "the IDF operates with pinpoint accuracy to try to make as clean a hit as possible, but unfortunately some of the weapons are located near kindergartens and mosques. An orchard is intende for oranges, not weapons, and a school is intended for studies and not weapons. A mosque is intended for prayer and not weapons."

Mordechai said that he expects further operations in the coming days, saying, "We expect that in the coming days the challenge will be very difficult and there will be rockets shot at southern Israel. I encourage all members of Hamas not to walk around above ground.”

On its Facebook page, the IDF wrote, “We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.”

Below the message was a picture of Jaabari with the word “eliminated” stamped across it.

Ahmed Jaabari, head of Hamas' military wing, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza Wednesday afternoon.

Israel struck back, finally, for the repeated rocket attacks with a targeted strike on Hamas leader Jaberi killing him and his son. The strike, and what has followed, will hopefully bring back some level of deterrence...

Israel kills Hamas commander, bombs Gaza targets

(Reuters) - Israel killed the military commander of the Islamist group Hamas in a missile strike on the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and launched air raids across the enclave, pushing the two sides to the brink of a new war.

The attacks marked the biggest escalation between Israel and Gaza militants since a 2008-2009 conflict and came despite signs on Tuesday that neighboring Egypt had managed to broker a truce in the enclave after a five day surge of violence.

Hamas said Ahmed Al-Jaabari, who ran the organization's armed wing, Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam, died along with an unnamed associate when their car was blown apart by an Israeli missile. Palestinians said nine people were killed, including a seven-year-old girl.

Video from Gaza showed the charred and mangled wreckage of a car belching flames, as emergency crews picked up what appeared to be body parts.

Israel confirmed it had carried out the attack on Jaabari and warned that more strikes would follow. Reuters witnesses reported numerous explosions around Gaza, with Hamas security compounds and police stations among the targets.

"This is an operation against terror targets of different organizations in Gaza," military spokesman Avital Leibovitch told reporters, adding that Jaabari had "a lot of blood on his hands".

Immediate calls for revenge were broadcast over Hamas radio.

"The occupation has opened the doors of hell," Hamas's armed wing said. Smaller groups also vowed to strike back.

"Israel has declared war on Gaza and they will bear the responsibility for the consequences," Islamic Jihad said.

The escalation in Gaza came in a week when Israel pounded Syrian artillery positions it said had fired into the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights amid a civil war in Syria that has brought renewed instability to neighboring Lebanon.

Hamas has been supported by both Syria and Iran, which Israel regards as a rising threat to its own existence due to its nuclear program.

Israel's intelligence agency Shin Bet said Jaabari was responsible for Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, when the militant Islamist group ousted fighters of the Fatah movement of its great rival, the Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

It said Jaabari instigated the attack that led to the capture of Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit in a kidnap raid from Gaza in 2006. Jaabari was also the man who handed Shalit over to Israel in a prisoner exchange five years after his capture.

Israel holds a general election on January 22 and conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under pressure to respond firmly against Hamas, with residents of southern Israel complaining bitterly about repeated missile strikes

Hamas has been emboldened by the rise to power in neighboring Egypt of its spiritual mentors in the Muslim Brotherhood whom it views as a "safety net".

Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died in the 2008-2009 conflict. There was a lull in hostilities after that, but the violence has flared again in recent months and Israel has repeatedly warned of dire consequences unless Hamas and its fellow militants stopped rocket attacks.

In the latest confrontation, which appeared to have ended on Tuesday, more than 115 missiles were fired into southern Israel from Gaza and Israeli planes launched numerous strikes. Seven Palestinians, three of them gunmen, were killed. Eight Israeli civilians were hurt by rocket fire and four soldiers wounded by an anti-tank missile.

Helped by Iran and the flourishing contraband trade through tunnels from Egypt, Gaza militias have smuggled in better weapons since the war of 2008-09, including longer-range Grad rockets and anti-tank missiles of the type they fired last week at an IDF patrol vehicle.

But Gaza's estimated 35,000 Palestinian fighters are still no match for Israel's F-16 fighter-bombers, Apache helicopter gunships, Merkava tanks and other modern weapons systems in the hands of a conscript force of 175,000, with 450,000 in reserve.

Israel's shekel fell nearly one percent to a two-month low against the dollar on Wednesday after news of the Israeli airstrikes broke.

Terror Squad Infiltrating Israel from Egypt Targeted by IAF

The terrorists who smashed into Israel at the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Sunday night managed to drive about a mile into Israel, and were traveling at 70 kilometers an hour along the road toward Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, before the Israeli Air Force was able to get a clear shot and blow up their armored vehicle without risk to civilian traffic on the road or nearby.

That was one of the findings of the IDF’s initial investigation into what officials said Monday was a very carefully planned and complex terror attack.

JPost has lots more details:

Back to the armored vehicle. After driving for about 100 meters on the highway, it encountered another force from the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion which again opened fire but failed to stop the vehicle’s advance. Driving at speeds of around 70 kph, the IDF feared that the vehicle was on its way to a nearby Israeli town and decided to send three tanks onto the highway, one from the north, one from behind and one from the west. At the same time and after the vehicle had crossed some 2 km, an Israeli aircraft was diverted to the scene and fired off a missile, finally causing the necessary damage to stop the vehicle’s advance. The bombing, approved by Russo, was not a simple decision and was unprecedented due to the fact that it took place inside Israeli territory.

After the vehicle stopped, two of the terrorists exited the vehicle and headed for cover in nearby fields, opening fire at a farming vehicle. In the meantime, the tank from behind fired two shells from a short distance, destroying the vehicle and killing at least five other terrorists still inside. Later, after a short gunfight, IDF soldiers killed the two terrorists outside.

Almost all of the terrorists were found to be wearing explosive bomb belts which has led the IDF to believe that the terrorists’ target was to either infiltrate an IDF base or a nearby town and to kill as many people as possible. The identities of the attackers are still unknown although a majority of them are believed to be Bedouin from the Sinai Peninsula.

YNET: Jews must fight evil Op-ed: Targeted killings of terror leaders are moral acts in line with Jewish value of self-defense Donniel Hartman

After weeks in which all that was talked about was “the existential threat” of a nuclear Iran, it was somewhat comforting in a macabre sense to return back to “normalcy” and the “regular” conflict between Israel and the terrorist groups that populate Gaza.

Israel assassinated Popular Resistance Committee Secretary-General Zuhir al-Qaisi, the known terrorist leader who was involved in the planning of an imminent terrorist attack from Sinai. In response, more than 100 rockets were fired at Israeli civilian population centers. In response to that, Israel bombed munitions factories and missile launching pads in Gaza. In world parlance, the above is often coined, “a cycle of violence,” in which all sides are encouraged to exercise self-restraint.

Should we exercise self-restraint? Should we engage in pre-emptive, targeted assassinations, knowing full well the “cycle of violence” that will ensue? I cannot speak to the military efficacy of Israel’s actions, as I am not a qualified military expert. I am, however, both a citizen of Israel and a teacher of Jewish law and thought, and I can speak from those perspectives.

Let me speak first as an Israeli. An essential part of our national ethos is to be pro-actively engaged in shaping our future. While full independence and complete self-sufficiency are myths, as a sovereign state, we nevertheless aspire to determine our own destiny to the best of our ability. We look at events and factors which may seem to be grim and declare: Yes, we can. This may cause discomfort among some who want the status quo to be preserved, not necessarily at all costs, but often, it seems, at our cost. They want the conflict to be resolved, and the problem to simply go away. Alas, the problem is still here, and the conflict is very much alive.

As an Israeli, I want my government to do everything in its power to change the status quo. This requires courageous moves of diplomacy but also audacity on the battlefield. I don’t want a government arrogant enough to believe that it can do anything, and that for every problem there is a military solution.

I do, however, want a government that is willing to experiment with the means at its disposal to make the lives of those who aim to harm me and my fellow citizens both difficult and extremely dangerous. As I said, I cannot judge the military efficacy of each military act, but as a citizen of Israel I embrace the need to act and to attempt to proactively give us the security that we deserve.

Acts of tikkun olam

As a teacher of Jewish law and thought, what do I think about targeted killings? While the Jewish tradition elevates the sanctity of life as one of its highest values and sees all of humanity as equal in value, for we were all created in the image of God, it does not merely allow but obligates acts of self-defense. As human beings, we are endowed with power in order to complete and repair the world. At times this requires of us generosity of spirit and social responsibility and action. At other times, however, it requires that we use that power in order to root out evil.

When we do so, we are neither acting immorally nor amorally, but rather fulfilling our core moral responsibility. One cannot be committed to the sanctity of life in general without being committed to valuing the sanctity of one’s own life. Self-defense is a higher moral expression than self-sacrifice. Our tradition teaches us, “haba l’horg’cha hashkem l’horgo,” (“When someone arises to kill you, pre-empt them, and kill them first.”) and in so doing, gives moral legitimacy to pre-emptive acts of self-defense.

Pre-emption, however, is a slippery term and can, in a slippery slope, morph into aggression. While power can be a vehicle for profound moral expression, it can also corrupt. Targeted killings of known terrorist leaders, those with blood on their hands and the self-expressed desire and capacity to spill more blood, are not morally ambiguous, but rather acts of tikkun olam, repairing the world.

I hate to see 20% of Israel living under the threat of missiles. I am pained by the fact that they must bear the brunt of our actions. I am thankful that the Iron Dome missile defense system is able to mitigate somewhat the price that is demanded of them.

At the same time, I recognize that evil exists, and that it is our responsibility as Israelis and moral duty as Jews to see this evil, and even if we cannot destroy it completely, to do everything in our power to limit it and to not allow its terrorist intent to rule our neighborhood. In doing so, we are not instigating a cycle of violence, but rather giving expression to the value we place on life and our right as a sovereign people to try to provide a safer future for our citizens.

I pray and expect that the innovativeness on the battlefield will not lead to arrogance and that the pro-active use of power will always be accompanied by pro-active attempts to make this use of power unnecessary. When we do so, we will be fulfilling our mission as Israelis and Jews.

Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute

Israel Warns Assad He Is on Death List If He Attacks: Report

A Kuwaiti newspaper reports that Israel has warned Syrian President Bashar Assad that if he will be targeted if he tries to start a war with Israel to take the glare off his brutal suppression of the uprising in his country.

The al-Jarida newspaper reported that the warning was sent through mediators in Turkey following intelligence reports of exceptional movements of Syrian troops and re-location of long-range missiles.

Israel has not commented on the report.

Israel last month said there was clear evidence that the Syrian regime paid residents to storm the Israeli border at the Golan Heights and engage the army, which killed approximately a dozen Syrian Arabs in clashes.

"It's almost a cliché - this is what he [Assad] always does. He's under pressure at home, so he deflects attention," said Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and quoted by the British business news site IBTimes.

He said that Assad tried the same tactic in the Second Lebanon War in 2006 “by rallying the people around resistance to Israel, and this time it's with the Palestinian cause. This is not going to work."

Despite mounting opposition to Assad, Syrians are united in their hatred for Israel and their demand for the Golan Heights, where approximately 50 percent of the population now is Jewish.

The protest movement in Syria has not subsided, but Assad also has not backed off from using brute force to gun down demonstrators, whom the government has labeled as “armed gangs.”

The regime allowed 200 protest leaders to meet in Damascus this week, but activists said that Syria has arrested more than 1,000 people in the last seven days, including 100 students at Damascus University following a large anti-government rally.

IBTimes noted that although Israel the protest movement exacerbates Israel’s fear of Assad’s next moves, “it seems however unrealistic to think that Assad would attack Israel since he knows that is one thing the country's western allies will not allow him to do.”

Israel to target Bashar al-Assad

With Israel wary of a potential Syrian attack on it in a bid to distract attention from the uprising going on in that country, the IDF is warning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that if Syria attacks Israel, Bashar himself will be a target.

Israel sent a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad in recent days, warning him that if he started a war with the Jewish state in order to divert attention from domestic problems, Israel will target him personally, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, the personal warning was sent through Turkey following intelligence reports of unusual Syrian troop movements, including the moving of long-range ballistic missiles that could be used to target Israel.

The report added that the IDF has increased its preparedness on the northern border out of fear that Hezbollah may attempt to stage another kidnapping of soldiers or civilians along the Lebanese border.

In June 2006, IAF warplanes buzzed Bashar's summer palace while he was there. Clearly, the IAF is capable of targeting the chinless ophthalmologist.

We kill Bin Laden, Israel Targets Hamas: Why Does The World Community Condemn The Jewish State? by Alan Dershowitz

 Imagine if Israeli commandos had crossed the border into Syria or Lebanon and shot the heads of the terrorist groups - Hamas and Hezbollah - that constantly target Israeli civilians. Or say they managed to track down and kill a top Hamas leader in Dubai. How would the world react to such a cross-border targeted assassination?

Wait! We already know. Israel did in fact assassinate several terrorist leaders in the Gaza Strip, and did allegedly conduct another covert operation in the United Arab Emirates. These terrorists had orchestrated the murder of more Israeli civilians, as a percentage of its population, than the number killed by Osama Bin Laden. But when Israel neutralized an ongoing threat against its civilians by targeting terrorist leaders for assassination, the international community - most particularly the European Union and the United Nations - was apoplectic.

Let's sample a few reactions from around the world at the time. The French Foreign Ministry declared "that extrajudicial executions contravene international law and are unacceptable." The Italian foreign minister said, "Italy, like the whole of the European Union, has always condemned the practice of targeted assassinations." The British foreign secretary said, "So-called targeted assassinations of this kind are unlawful, unjustified and counterproductive." The Jordanians said, "Jordan has always denounced this policy of assassination and its position on this has always been clear."

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan declared, quite unequivocally, "that extrajudicial killings are violations of international law." Have you ever heard such unanimity in global opinion?

The fact that none of these convenient critics of Israel has dared challenge the wisdom or legitimacy of the assassination of Bin Laden by the United States lays the double standard bare: Israel is the one country whose right to defend itself is systematically questioned.

What the United States did in Pakistan stretched, but did not break, the loosely defined bounds of international law. Bin Laden, like the terrorist leaders of Hamas, was a combatant under any reasonable definition of that term. Under the rules of warfare, he was an appropriate target of a kill-or-capture operation. As long as he did not try to surrender, he could be shot the way an ordinary soldier can be shot during a combat operation.

Likewise, when Israel singles out terrorist leaders or organizations for military action, they are acting well within the bounds of customary international law. Nations throughout history have engaged in similar acts of proactive self-defense without criticism.

But Israel risks condemnation every time it seeks to defend its civilians. There are resolutions by the United Nations, Goldstone reports and threats to haul its leaders in front of international and domestic courts.

The broad consensus among reasonable people is that the United States acted properly in going after Osama Bin Laden, who had murdered thousands of innocent Americans in cold blood. This action, and its widespread approval, has now become part of customary international law. When Israel engaged in similar actions, the international community condemned them as outside of international law.

When President Obama comes to Ground Zero today, he will be appropriately applauded not only by most Americans but by most reasonable people around the world. His actions made the United States and the world a bit safer from the scourge of international terrorism.

Likewise, when Benjamin Netanyahu comes to Washington, he, too, should be applauded for making the world and his own citizens a bit safer. We must have one standard in judging military actions. Both the United States and Israel have helped to create that standard by seeking to balance the need for aggressive actions against terrorists with compliance to the rule of law.

Dershowitz is a professor at Harvard Law School.

WSJ: Killing Terror Leaders: Israel's Experience The elimination of an organization's leader tends to paralyze the group in the short term, but it sometimes results in the rise of an even more dangerous successor.

Before most Americans had heard the name Osama bin Laden, Israel's Mossad was on to him. In 1995, when unknown assailants tried to kill then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia, the CIA and the Egyptian intelligence service requested the Mossad's assistance in investigating the incident. The Mossad discovered that Iran and a hitherto unknown mujahedeen group were jointly responsible for carrying out the attempted assassination. Notable among these mujahedeen—veterans of the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan who had found refuge in Sudan—was a certain wealthy Saudi by the name of bin Laden.

The Mossad was sufficiently concerned by this development that it set up a Global Jihad desk—the first Western intelligence organization to do so—in a bid to gather information on the new phenomenon of scattered terrorist cells lacking a hierarchical structure and regular state assistance. The Mossad was also the first to attempt, unsuccessfully, to assassinate bin Laden: In 1995, it recruited his secretary to poison him.

It has long been evident that killings of this kind are an invaluable component of the military arsenal in the fight against terrorism. The country that has carried out more targeted killings than any other since the end of World War II is Israel. Though it officially denies responsibility for most of the killings it has carried out, the Jewish state has repeatedly eliminated field operatives and military, political and ideological leaders of organizations it has deemed dangerous.

While formally opposed to Israel's actions, U.S. administrations have turned a blind eye. And since the mid-1990s, Israel has shared a great deal of technology that it developed in its use of drones with the U.S. Today, drones are America's primary weapon in its own targeted killings. Israel also trained U.S. special forces in penetration and ambush techniques in urban environments—techniques that were later put into practice in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

AFP/Getty Images

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a 2009 rally, with 'martyrs' Ragheb Harb, Abbas Mussawi and Imad Mugniyeh (left to right) pictured behind him.

With Osama bin Laden dead, the question facing Western intelligence services is what direction al Qaeda will take next. The lesson that the Israeli intelligence community has learned the hard way is that targeted killings, as often as not, have the effect of shuffling the deck in undesirable ways. The elimination of an organization's leader tends to paralyze the group in the short term, but it sometimes results in the rise of an even more dangerous successor.

On the afternoon of Feb. 16, 1992, Israeli Air Force Apache helicopters hit a convoy of vehicles in Lebanon, killing Abbas Mussawi, one of the founders and the secretary-general of Hezbollah. A successful operation in itself, Mussawi's assassination led to the retaliatory bombing attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, in which 29 civilians lost their lives. In the long run, the killing resulted in the rise of Hassan Nasrallah as the new leader of Hezbollah. Talented and charismatic, Nasrallah turned Hezbollah into a dominant political and military force in Lebanon. He also changed the organization's goals, prioritizing the struggle against Israel instead of the domestic Lebanese power struggle, which was his predecessor's focus. (Nasrallah has largely remained underground since Israel's war against Hezbollah in 2006.)

Similarly, in 2004, Israel's then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas, based on the Israeli intelligence community's consensus that eliminating Yassin would cripple Hamas's future growth. This was also the view of the U.S. administration, which received prior notice of the intended killing.

Indeed, the killing of Yassin caused considerable immediate damage to Hamas and its ability to reorganize. But in the long term, the demise of Yassin—a devout Sunni who categorically refused to cooperate with Shiite Iran—made possible the rise of Khaled Meshaal, who had no such compunction. As a result, Hamas became, and remains, a much more dangerous organization—one that receives massive military and financial support from Tehran.

In 1988, Israel eliminated the military leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) in Tunis. The reason was his involvement in a series of fatal terrorist attacks and his superior ability to plan and carry out terrorist operations. Abu Jihad's death was a serious military blow, and it had a considerable effect on the organization's morale. But Israeli leaders hoped that eliminating Abu Jihad would help bring an end to the popular uprising, the first Intifada, that had broken out a short time before. In this, of course, they were to be profoundly disappointed.

There are those in Israel who have come to regret the assassination of Abu Jihad. Many political observers believe that had the charismatic leader been alive today he might have been able to unite the Palestinian people and fulfill the agreements with Israel that Yasser Arafat systematically violated.

The case of Arafat is complicated. Israel first tried to assassinate him in March 1968 in Jordan. He escaped, and many Israeli soldiers were killed. Countless other attempts were made on his life, including by shelling his bunker during the war in Beirut in 1982.

Over the years, there was much debate in Israel's intelligence community about what to do with Arafat. Officials eventually decided that he had ceased to be a target from the moment he received international legitimacy as a political leader (including among sections of the Israeli public).

But when he openly supported the waves of Palestinian terror that hit Israel starting in September 2000, his legitimacy was tarnished. Israel once again began examining the possibility of killing him. One suggestion was to capture him and deport him to Lebanon. This idea was vetoed by Mr. Sharon, who feared that Arafat would become a symbol and a rallying point. Mr. Sharon also vetoed all proposals to eliminate Arafat in a military operation. The issue was resolved when Arafat died in a hospital in Paris after a mysterious illness. Many of his followers blamed the Mossad.

Arafat's death has had a certain beneficial effect both on Israel and on the West Bank. His successors, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad, have acted with determination against terror and have brought an improved quality of life and economic growth to inhabitants of the West Bank. On the other hand, where Arafat was strong Mr. Abbas has been weak, failing to prevent the split between the Fatah-led West Bank and the Hamas-led Gaza.

There is no doubt that the killing of bin Laden, like that of other terrorist leaders, was justified. But it remains to be seen who and what will eventually rise to take his place, and whether the apprentice will be more awful than the master.

Mr. Bergman is a senior military and intelligence analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli daily. He is currently working on a book about the Mossad and the art of assassination.