Thread: Mahmoud al-Mabhouh Assassination

Originally Posted by Syme

Generally speaking, I personally don't view it as morally reprehensible for a country or group that's involved in warfare (declared/official or otherwise) to carry out assassinations or "targeted killings" of enemy leadership. I know a lot of people disagree and see assassination as something fundamentally immoral. I don't, though. It strikes me as being just as legitimate and defensible, if not more so, than a soldier firing his rifle at an enemy soldier who's coming at him. I don't have a moral objection to the Israelis bumping off Hamas commanders, and I wouldn't have a moral objection to Hamas bumping off IDF commanders either. To me what's morally reprehensible are the attacks that affect civilians/innocents, whether it's Hamas launching rockets that hit schools or the IDF firing missiles/bombs that blow up civilian residences.

I pretty much agree here. Furthermore, the soldiers in the field are only doing what they're forced to do by their superiors. They're not necessarily the ideological banner-bearers that their overseers are, yet they are expected to pay the ultimate price.

I think the reasons why assassinations are viewed as immoral is because they are unsporting: the target is caught more or less unawares, the attackers are not in soldiers' uniforms, etc. Also, at least for some of us, the word "assassination" conjures up images of some truly immoral events, such as the mid-century CIA assassinations of democratically elected leaders in Latin American countries.

Originally Posted by Syme

But since Israel got caught doing it, and in such a brazen and controversial operation... again, I understand why some of these countries are miffed. And of course their displeasure has to be voiced in condemnatory tones. They can't just say "damnit Israel we all know that all our spy services do this, but we're pissed off that you got caught doing it on an assassination". They have to act like they're seriously affronted by the act itself.

Or "You have so little respect for us that you'll brazenly use passports faked from our countries on an assassination and allow them to be found so easily?"

Funny thing is, assuming Israel really is behind this killing, it wouldn't be the first time they've screwed up like this. When they tried to kill Khalid Mashaal in 1997, the hit team entered Jordan with Canadian passports, which caused a similar diplomatic flap with Canada when they bungled the job and got caught. This is one of the reasons I'm still not entirely comfortable assuming Mossad responsibility for the Al-Mabhouh killing, since it would mean that they are repeating techniques which have gotten them into trouble in the past.

Actually, that's one reason why I would think it is truly Mossad. Organizations like this often times don't learn from their mistakes, and what was done wrong is often enough a mark of a particular organization as is what was done right.