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Dubai assassination ‘good news’, says Tzipi Livni
Former PM breaks Israeli silence on the killing of Hamas leader al-Mabhouh
Tzipi Livni is sticking her neck out again. The former Israeli prime minister has applauded the assassination last month of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel. In doing so, Livni has become the first senior Israeli to comment on the hit, which is generally believed to have been carried out by her former employer, Mossad.
In a speech in Jerusalem, Livni, the leader of the opposition Kadima party, said: "The fact that a terrorist was killed - and it doesn't matter if it was in Dubai or Gaza - is good news to those fighting terrorism.
"Every terrorist must know that no one will support him when a soldier, and it doesn't matter what soldier, tries to kill him, whether it is in the Gaza Strip, Afghanistan or Dubai."
When asked whether Mossad was involved in al-Mabhou's electrocution and suffocation, Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, said: "Israel never responds, never confirms and never denies."
But as an opposition politician, Livni seems more than happy to comment. She said any comparison between terrorists and those fighting them is "immoral". She added: "I don't expect the world to welcome the killing of terrorists, but I do expect the world to not criticise it."
The criticism levelled at the Israeli government has been based largely on the use by the Dubai hit squad of passports belonging to nationals of countries such as Britain, Ireland and France.
Today the Dubai government said another 15 fake passports had been used in the operation, bringing to 26 the total number of suspects involved. Of those, 12 used UK passports - a practice condemned by the British government when it was first revealed last week.
Livni, who worked in her 20s an an undercover agent for Mossad, stationed in Paris, yesterday mocked the British reaction: "What was disproportionate this time? Was there a disproportionate use of passports?"
The British government should be getting used to Livni's tongue-lashings. Her combative stance on targeted assassinations is very much in keeping with her promise earlier this month to visit London in order to test the UK's 'universal jurisdiction' laws, which permit a magistrate to issue an arrest warrant for war crimes committed anywhere in the world.
The issue is particularly close to Livni's heart, since she was the Israeli foreign minister at the time of the country's much-criticised offensive in Gaza last year.
Livni told the Jewish Chronicle: "I will do this not for me, not for provocation, but for the right of every Israeli to travel freely. I am not going to be restricted by extremists because I fought terror."
She said that if an announcement was not made on a change in the law by February 23, she would take up within weeks one of the many invitations she has received to visit London. There has been no such announcement - so Londoners had better put their hard hats on.
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One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. State sponsored murder is still murder, and undermines the credibility of the sponsor. Justice and the rule of law should apply equally.
And this is one of Britain's allies talking?? Astonishing, isn't it? How many British passports has Mossad forged? Or weren't they actually given to Mossad by David Miliband's Foreign Office - considering what a handy little Mossad tool Miliband is?
The bible does not say "Thou shalt not kill", this is a bad translation, whether from the Old Testament or New Testament. The newer translations all accurately translate it as "Thou shalt not murder" which is killing with 'malice aforethought' in the English legal phrase. Killing in self-defence is also explicitly excluded, and the many examples of the nation of Israel being at war throughout its long history do not include any condemnations of the many prophets and priests rebuking the kings or the peoples for legitimately fighting those who would have killed them or enslaved them. And in the New Testament Jesus asked his disciples how many swords they had (for self-defence against robbers and the like), and they answered "Two", and he said "That is enough", not 'get rid of them'. None of the apostles ever preached pacifism, so Jesus was not a pacifist, the disciples and apostles were not pacifist, and neither am I.
Is murder an acceptable action by states that claim to be democracies and subject to the rule of law?
"Thou shalt not kill" is STILL one of the Ten Commandments!
I feel I must concur with Tzipi Livni. It is good to hear of 'Chemical' Ali, and other mass murders, being dealt with. I do not mind if they are hung, strangled by secret service assassins, or struck by a lightning bolt cast by the wrath of God. They only understand violence, it is right and proper that they be dealt with, blow for blow, force for force. Weakness and cowardice encourages them, words alone are worthless, they must by eliminated. As Jesus said in the New Testament, "Those who live by the sword, die by the sword." Amen to that.