TARGETED KILLING IN ISRAEL

 Targeted killing is defined as an intentional slaying of a specific individual or group,

taken with government approval – aka State Sponsored Assassinations
 However, the Israeli government refuses to refer to the Targeted Killings as
Assassinations because the term Assassination usually refers to the killing of senior
political officials. The majority of attacks conducted by Israel are targeted on
Palestinian terrorists and those who plan the actual attacks
 Israelis usually do not officially acknowledge the responsibility for a specific killing-
unless it is blatantly clear that there are Israeli forces involved.
 Their attacks are characterised by their professionalism, efforts to minimize innocent
casualties, and the sophistication of weapons used

HISTORY:
 Israel has adopted a policy of targeted killing since the fail of the 2nd intifada in 2000.
(The infintada was an uprising among Palestinian Arabs of the Gaza Strip and West
Bank, in protest against continued Israeli occupation of these territories.)
 The infintada was triggered by the failure of the Camp David Accords (when Egypt
signed a peace treaty with Israel, and other Arab nations took offense and saw it as a
“stab in the back”) and when Ariel Sharon (Israeli PM) visited the Temple Mount – a
sacred site for Muslims.
 The practice of targeted killing in Israel is not new, and is mentioned in the Bible on
many occasions.

Examples:

 In the 1950s Israel focused on targeted killings to halt the fedayeen attacks from Egypt.
Through the use of mail bombs sent by Mossad, two senior Egyptian military were killed.
 In the 1960s, the mail bombs were then used again to scare German scientists who were
developing missiles capable of reaching Israel from Egypt, the scientists returned to
Germany with their families and the missile program was stopped.
 Israel’s victory in the 1967 War led to an increase in Palestinian terror which led to the
dramatically increased use of targeted killings by Israel.
 The slaughter of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 also provoked
targeted killings , the Mossad hunted them down and killed all of the Black September
members responsible for the massacre (and what a coincidence, the guy who was the
mastermind behind the whole thing was pronounced dead 3 hours to writing this!)
 3 major efforts of targeted killing took placed in the 1990s; one successful, one with
mixed results and one a failure.

1
 o The successful operation killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad Head, Fathi Shikaki,
and producing disarray in the Jihad.
o The mixed outcome grew from the killing of Yahya Ayyash, a bomb maker in
Gaza. Ayyash was killed while speaking on a booby trapped mobile phone (goes
to prove the sophistication of the weapons!) which then provoked 4 suicide bus
bombings in the next 2 months killing more than 50 Israelis.
o The failed attempt was when the Mossad failed to kill Khaled Meshal, a Hamas
political leader in 1997. The Mossad agents succeeded in poisoning Meshal but
were captured by Jordanian authorities before they could leave. In order to secure
the release of the agents, the PM of Israel promised to provide the antidote to the
poison and had to release Hamas’ founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin from Israeli
prison. As a result of this: Israel damaged relations with Jordan – a friendly Arab
country and infuriated Canada when they were discovered using Canadian fake
passports.
 After the 2nd infintada, Israel was forced to acknowledge its role in targeted killings to a
much greater extent than previously.

PROS OF TARGETED KILLING

 Terrorism is an offensive action, making counter-offensive actions such as targeted

killing especially effective
 It is too difficult for Israel to defend itself from terror attacks or to deter attacks from
Palestinians, there are tens of thousands of places in which these terrorists could hit and it
is impossible to defend them all.
 Deterrence of terrorism is not easy when potentials terrorists are eager to die for their
cause.
 In these situations, the best response is to eliminate the terrorists before they can strike.
As seen above in the examples, this method is successful.
 Another benefit has become apparent: targeted killings have impeded the effectiveness of
Palestinian organizations where the leadership, planning and skills are confined to only a
few individuals, there are only a limited number of people who are able and who have the
ability to make bombs and plan attacks- if these people are eliminated, the ability to
mount attacks is degraded.
 There is also evidence that targeted killings have reduced the performance of Palestinian
operations. There are individual leader whose charisma and organizational skills keep a
group together, and if they are eliminated they aren’t easy to replace.

2
 Targeted killings also keep bomb makers on the run. When the Israelis inform the
Palestinian Authority who they are after, the information is then often passed to the
targeted individuals who then put more effort into hiding than causing destruction.
 Some voluntarily choose to place themselves in Palestinian custody to avoid being slain.
The threat is then consequently diminished. Even for the Palestinians who don’t know
that they are being hunted the possibility that they might be targeted might be enough to
alter their behaviour.
 Time and effort put into avoiding the Mossad are time and effort not used to plan or carry
out operations against Israel.
 Targeted killing also acts as a deterrent. It seems impossible to deter someone who is
willing and eager to lose their life. However for every suicide bomber out there, there
might be another who is not ready for martyrdom.
 There is strong evidence that the policy of targeted killing hurts Palestinian organizations
to the extent to which they are willing to alter their behaviour.
 When the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with three Palestinian Leaders, he asked what
they wanted from him. The first they said was to put an end on the targeted killings.
Islamic Jihad and Hamas agreed to stop launching attacks in pre-1967 Israel in December
2001 just a long as Israel stopped killing their leaders. Even though the cease fire broke
down eventually, their willingness to go with the cease fire indicates the deterrent power
of targeted killing.