Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a session of the Security Cabinet vetoed a call to assassinate Hamas leaders Khalid Meshal [in Qatar] and Ismail Haniyeh, believed to be in an underground bunker in Gaza.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) raised the matter of killing the two, the Yisrael Hayom report states. Lapid’s initiative was backed by Foreign Minister (Yisrael Beitenu) Avigdor Lieberman and Economy Minister (Bayit Yehudi) Naftali Bennett, but Mr. Netanyahu used his veto authority. However, the prime minister did approve bombing Haniyeh’s empty Gaza home, which was done.
Regarding Meshal, Netanyahu ordered a hit on him back in his first term in office in 1997. The plan went sour when the Mossad agents were apprehended, taken into custody in Amman. Israel had to deliver the antidote to the poison given to Meshal in order to obtain the release of the agents. The deal was brokered by the late Jordanian leader King Hussein who capitalized on the situation. Part of that deal included Israel’s release of then Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and dozens of terrorists. Yassin was eventually killed in targeted hit by the IDF at a future date.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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20 Responses
Just kill them. Netanyahu is consistently making the wrong decisions.
No surprise here. After all Bibi declared a war on Hamas tunnels, not on Hamas. looks like tunnels are winning.
What games is Netanyahu playing?
2 bad
And the reason is ? I long philosophised that they don’t kill Haniyeh and others like him becuase there is an unspoken understanding that from time to time, the leader will give Israel names and locations of their own inorder to spare their own lives. It works out great for everyone, Israel gets great intelligence and they save their own skin which is all they are worried about anyway. Other than that, I can’t think of any other explanation. What do you think?
Countries at war usually do not assasinate each other’s leaders. To date, the only Israeli leader assasinated was a minor party cabinet member. Changing the rules of the game by shooting the enemy’s elected leadership isn’t in Israel’s interest. Of course, a lucky shell might catch him unaware, but that’s not the same as boasting in advance about assassinating someone.
A good analogy was how the US assasinated the leader of the Japanese forces (Yamamoto) in World War II. Even though it was a very well planned targetted killing, the US claimed they were randomly attacking some passing Japanese planes and had no idea the commander who planned Pearl Harbor was on board.
Smart move,
We need those fools there to keep the rockets coming so Isreal can finish Hamas.
If Rockets stop then Isreal will OF COURSE agree to whatever OBAMA wants.
we need Mashal and Haniyeh alive. They are much better then that DOG Mahmoud Abbas who will back stab Isreal like
that filthy RAT Arafat used to do.
Any explanation why?
You can’t win a war with a chicken hearted fellow like Netanyahu
#8 – read #6.
Very simple: Lev Melachim V’sarim b’yad Hashem.
There is good reason to believe that Netanyahu is correct here. President Obama ordered the assassination of all the top Al Qaeda leaders. Al Qaeda doesn’t exist any more but violent Islamic extremism has not been reduced. And Obama’s political enemies have blasted him mercilessly for supposedly denying Al Qaeda leaders due process!
לב שרים ומלכים ביד ה
To irrelevant me it seems that Netanyahu is in error in 5hat these rabid dogs are not heads of state where that philosophy might be otherwise applicable, rather, these dispirited creatures are terrorists, promoters and teachers of terrorists. They ought not be spared just as Agag king of Amaleik was not to be spared. If these miscreants are eliminated so many more lives could be spared and the war declared over! This is more like a Racheim Al haAchzor!
BS”D
I’d like to think that the PM is making a distinction between the political/spiritual leaders of the wicked ones and the military commanders. Thus, the PM will avoid the mess of targeted killings regarding the leaders while having no hesitation targeting the military commanders, who are running the war from the underground bunkers. Hashem should help that these wicked ones should be found and killed.
#6
While generally your comments are appreciated (and you hopefully ignore the ad hominem attacks from those who are intimidated),here you are partially incorrect
Countries often would love to knock out enemy leaders(e.g. bombing Hitler and Saddam’s bunkers’)
The US would have been proud to broadcast the P-38s getting Yamamato,but that would have possibly uncovered Operation Purple.
Presumably ,everyone doubts that Lapid was the real instigator.
The media is attemping to repaint him in better colors
“Countries often would love to knock out enemy leaders”
True, but this rarely works. The last head of state to die in a military operation was King Gustav Adolf of Sweden, in 1632.
To Charliehall:
So why did Obama kill (allegedly) Osama Bin Ladin and then boast about it? I thought “we” don’t kill the leaders of our enemies. You can’t have it both ways.
#18
He died on the battlefield
which may be akin to the capture of Napoleon III