Israel DM Rejects Calls for Assassinating Palestinians

Arrest Raids Mean No Need to Invade Cities, Assassinate 'Suspects'

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon today dismissed calls from far-right politicians to resume “targeted assassinations” in the occupied West Bank and to conduct wholesale military invasions of Palestinian cities there, calling the moves “unnecessary.”

Ya’alon insisted that Israel’s military retains the capability to carry out covert arrest raids into all Palestinian cities without the trouble of an outright invasion, saying that if there were suspects they had good intelligence on it was easier to arrest them than carry out assassinations against them.

Ya’alon insisted the calls for more aggressive military action, championed primarily by former FM Avigdor Lieberman, as “sloganeering,” saying there was no way for a single military operation to restore calm in the occupied territories.

Lieberman responded by declaring this a “policy of containment and defeat,” insisting the Israeli government needs to have a “policy of decisive victory” that involves killing everyone who is involved in incitement to murdering Israeli Jews.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.