Forwarded from Robert Touraine

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Washington Post Article Details Israeli Policy of Targeted Assassination

In the spring of 1973, a group of Israeli commandos guided a speedboat up
the Mediterranean coast and scrambled ashore in Beirut. Their covert
mission: to assassinate three of the Palestine Liberation Organization's top
officials in their downtown apartments.

The leader of the team, Ehud Barak, commander of Israel's special forces,
wore a long, dark wig, false breasts and women's clothing. He and his men
gunned down all three targets, according to accounts confirmed by Barak, who
later became Israel's prime minister.

Military officials said they used targeted killings when they were unable to
arrest the wanted militant, which officials said was always their first
choice. But human rights officials argue that Israel has made thousands of
arrests under difficult circumstances since the intifada began, challenging
the claim that some targets must be killed rather than arrested. Israeli
officials say the justification for targeted killings is self-defense: "a
means to prevent in-progress and future terrorist attacks that will kill
Israeli civilians," according to court documents recently filed to the
Israeli Supreme Court by the Israeli government in response to the human
rights groups' suit.

Full article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45924-2003Jun28.html


Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org