RAMALLAH, May 5 (JMCC) - Pro-Israel advocate and lawyer Alan Dershowitz says that the US killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden vindicates Israel in its policy of targeted assassinations.
In an
op-ed published in the
Jerusalem Post, Dershowitz slams European countries who criticized Israel for its policies of targeting Hamas and other Palestinian leaders for their silence on the killing of an unarmed Bin Laden.
Israel developed the concept of targeted killings, and used it effectively against the “Osama bin Ladens” of Hamas, who directed terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, killing and wounding far more Israelis (as a percentage of Israel’s population) than the number of Americans killed by bin Laden. It was when Israel managed to kill the head of Hamas that the international community, with the striking exception of the United States, decided that targeted killing was illegal and immoral.
But now that it has been used against an enemy of Britain, France, Italy and other European nations, suddenly targeted killing is not only legal and moral, it is praiseworthy (except, of course, to Hamas, which immediately condemned the US killing of bin Laden).
Well, the truth is that when used properly, targeted killing has always been deserving of approval – even when employed by Israel, a nation against which a double standard always seems to be applied.