Political Assassination

Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations by Ronen Bergman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

All through out Israel’s existence , from the pre state days to present time, assassination has been a tool of national self defense. The purpose of assassination is to prevent a full scale military’s confrontation . The book traces the history of Israel’s use of assassination and with some examination of it’s moral relevance and effectiveness. All branches of the Israeli Defense Establishmment all the way from IDF commando groups, Aman, Mossad and Shin Bet have been involved in assassinating enemy leaders.

In the pre state days the Haganah used assassination against rival Palestinian leaders, some British and even other Jews. One of the most noted assassination in pre state time was of Jacob DeHan. Jacob was a gay Orthodox Jew who was very pro- Arab. He was murdered and the Haganah decided to frame the Irgun. The Stern Gang, radical Jewish terrorists of the time assassinated Lord Moyne in Egypt.

After the establishment of the state of Israel, the fledgling state faced numerous threats. Among them was German Scientists working for Egypt in order to develop rockets and chemical weapon to use against Israel. To stop this the Israelis would send letter bombs to the scientists. These letter bombs killed several scientists and also wounded several of them. This may have had the effect of forcing Egypt to shut down that program.

Black September occurred after the PLO took over the Israeli hotel room during the 1974 Olympics. Almost all of the Israeli athletes were murdered. This would cause Golda Meir to send assassins after the PLO terrorists responsible. To kill someone a Prime Minister must sign a red paper. While many terrorists welfare eliminated there was also diplomatic fall out as Israel assassinnate enemies on friendly European soil. The Europeans were not happy about that. Did the assassination really stop the next generation of terrorists.

During the second Intifadah when Israel was facing suicide bombings a variety of assassination techniques were used . Among them was the use of drones to shoot missiles at opponents , like with Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Or to use booby trapped cell phones like Israel used with Ayash “The Engineer” Israel used assassination to halt Iran’s nuclear program as well as Syrias. While assassination or targeted killing may have solved an initial problem sometimes it lead to an even more complicated situations. For example Sheik Yassin, the founder of Hamas absolutely refused to work with Iran. After his assassination Hamas moved closer to Hezbollah and Iran. This made Israel’s situation all the worse because the new leader chose to work with Iran. This meant that Hamas was working with Hezbollah and Iran. This gave them more of an advantage against Israel. To stop the weapons from flowing in Israel had to assassinate someone who got weapons for Hamas. This triple ring of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran would have to be combated. THE biggest threat was of Iranian nuclear weapons.

Khalid Mashal was a Hamas leader in Amman Jordan. The Israelis botched an assassination attempt against him. It soured relations between Israel and Jordan and they had to give Mashal the antidote anyways plus they had to release tons of Palestinians fighter.Does assassination work. Let’s watch the news and see what happens with the Soleimeni issue.

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