Obama’s assassination of bin Laden sets a law-breaking precedent. Calls to assassinate Gaddafi quickly emerged after bin Laden’s killing was made known. Now Shaul Mofaz, a former Israeli Defense Minister and current head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, says that the U.S. has adopted Israel’s already existing assassination policy.
Worse yet, he argues that Obama’s action justifies Israel’s assassinations: “Mofaz said in an interview with Israeli radio on Tuesday that Washington’s decision to kill bin Laden rather than try him in a court of law justified the former policy that Tel Aviv implemented against Palestinians that included killing Hamas and other senior Palestinian officials.” Hence, lawlessness begets specious justifications for more lawlessness. If officials of the Israeli and the U.S. governments can assassinate people, and if this is perceived or advertised as justifiable, then the officials of any nation can also instigate murders, justify them with these false rationales, and get away with murder.
One good thing about the Mofaz statement is that he sees clearly what Obama has done and says it like it is. He doesn’t sugarcoat it. It’s murder without rule of law and without trial, decided by government officials.
7:02 am on May 4, 2011
