Southfield, Mich. (Jewish Renaissance Media) — After Cabinet level discussions, the officers of a Western style democracy agree to empower its military and intelligence agencies to seek out and kill specific leaders of a terrorist group that has murdered hundreds of its citizens.
The agency tracks one of those terrorist leaders and, learning that he and several of his henchmen are going to be in a vehicle, arranges a missile strike that kills the man and his associates.
Within this democracy, the action is met with overwhelming approval, but some other nations say the democracy is being a lawless bully.
No, it wasn’t Israel assassinating a leader of Islamic Jihad or Hamas. Last week, the assassination was carried out in Yemen by the United States against a suspected leader of Al-Qaida, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi.
Afterward the Bush administration said it needed to use deadly force to deter potential terrorists even if it meant working outside of tactics based on law enforcement.
As Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, explained, “We’ve just got to keep the pressure on everywhere we are able to, and we’ve got to deny the sanctuaries everywhere we are able to, and we’ve got to put pressure on every government that is giving these people support to get out of that business.”
All well and good. The terrorists have created a new battlefield with new rules of engagement and if they are paid back in kind, that may be necessary.
But what we cannot fathom is why the United States, the day after its successful strike, insisted that Israel must never do the same.
The “targeted killings” of Palestinian militants, the State Department says, are unacceptable. The circumstances, it insists, are “not comparable.”
Let’s see. After Cabinet level discussions, the officers of a Western style democracy agree to empower its military and intelligence agencies to seek out and kill specific leaders….
Jonathan Friendly is a contributing editor at Jewish Renaissance Media.
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