 Gaza, March 9, 2012 |
Yesterday, March 9, 2012, the IDF launched an air-strike in Gaza, killing Zuhir al-Qaisi, also known as Abu Ibrahim, the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, the organization that captured former IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Mahmoud Hanani, al-Qaisi’s assistant, was also killed. Khalid al-Qaisi, a relative of the killed Palestinian leader and also a member of the same organization, was killed on January 14 in a mysterious explosion; yet, the IDF denied any involvement on that attack.
Following yesterday’s attack, the Popular Resistance Committees vowed to avenge al-Qaisi’s death in a way that would “shake the Zionist enemy.” Hamas’ spokesman in Gaza said in response to the attack that the Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves. Twenty centuries after their initial apparition, the Sicarii are out and hitting again.
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) are a coalition of various Palestinian factions in Gaza that oppose the Palestinian Authority’s attitude towards Israel.
Composed primarily of ex-Fatah fighters and al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades members, the PRC is alleged by Israel to be inspired and financed by Lebanese Hezbollah. Incredibly, Israel bases its claim on the similarity between the Hezbollah and PRC flags.
According to this Israeli logic, Thai citizens would soon enjoy Costa Rican citizenship due to the astonishing similarity of the respective countries flags.
 Battle of Shanghai – Baby Survivor | State Terror
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Israel’s Extrajudicial Executions
For many years now, the IDF has implemented a simplistic doctrine of “disproportionate response,” in which it responds wildly to any suspicion of wrongdoing. This nearly always leads to the death of innocent Arab civilians, and it invariably aggravates anti-Israeli sentiment. Each time it creates an escalation that is difficult to control and throws the entire country into a dead-end alley. The declarations made by PRC and Hamas after yesterday’s attack are a good example of this.
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Yesterday’s attack is another instance of Israel’s extrajudicial executions, in which a person is assassinated by the State of Israel without him—or her—having passed through a judicial process.
Two such events are well known, and archetypal of Israel’s behavior. On September 25, 1997, Khaled Mashal—a prominent Hamas leader—was the target of an assassination attempt carried out by the Israeli Mossad under orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Two Mossad agents carrying Canadian passports entered Jordan and injected Mashal with an unknown nerve toxin.
A few days later, Netanyahu surrendered to international pressure and provided the antidote. Toxin and antidote were developed by the Israel Institute for Biological Research (see Mossad, Sonic Weapons & Haled Mashal).
On January 5, 1996, the Shin Beth assassinated Yahya Ayyash with the help of a modified cellular phone. He was suspected of being the chief bombmaker of Hamas and the leader of the West Bank battalion of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He earned the nickname the Engineer. Neither Khaled Mashal nor Yahya Ayyash were allowed an open and just judicial process.
Israeli behavior is based on two odd principles. The first is a claim of “precognition” by Israeli authorities; they seriously claim to know their victim was about to commit a crime. I expanded on this in Minority Report: IDF arrests Palestinian prisoner released in Shalit swap.
Reality is simple, Israelis—like all humans—do not know the future; thus the justification for their extrajudicial execution is absurdly baseless. They are just committing cruel crimes. No civil servant can claim to know the future, and deny liberty—or even kill—on this account. No civil servant can claim he doesn’t like a person, and deny liberty—or even kill—on this account.
At the moment it did so, Israel stepped into the realm of institutional crime. On the issue of crimes, Israel operates according to Criminal Law, also known as Penal Law, the law pertaining to crimes and punishment. The laws comprising this topic regulate the definition of offences found to have a sufficiently deleterious social impact and impose punishments on them.
However, the law does not impose restrictions on a society that physically prevents people from committing a crime in the first place. Israel is contradicting and violating its own legal system.
The second odd principle is Israel’s attempt to create deterrence; in other words, create such a fear among the oppressed Palestinians, that they would stop struggling for their rights. Instead, Israel just strengthens the determination of the oppressed to gain freedom. Deterrence and fear are just substitute terms for “terror,” we are speaking here about state terror.
State terrorism is a term that has been used to refer to terrorist acts committed by governmental agents or forces. This involves the use of state resources—like its military—to directly perform acts of terrorism.
Professor of Political Science Michael Stohl cites Germany’s bombing of London and the US atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. He argues that “the use of terror tactics is common in international relations and the state has been and remains a more likely employer of terrorism within the international system than insurgents.”
The concept is also used to describe political repressions by governments against their own civilian population with the purpose of inciting fear. For example, taking and executing civilian hostages and extrajudicial killings are commonly considered terrorism, for example during the Communist Red Terror. The Israeli extrajudicial killings are clearly within this category.
There is no new thing under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
“Kanaim” (“Zealots” in Hebrew) were one of the four Jewish sects in existence during the days of the Great Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire in 66-70AD. They sought to incite the people of the Roman Iudaea Province to rebel against the empire and expel it from the Holy land by force of arms.
After the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70AD, 960 Zealots under the lead of Elazar ben Yair took refuge by capturing the Roman fortress of Masada and taking no prisoners. The Roman Tenth Legion was sent to retake the stronghold, but it failed for three years, even after the Romans invented new types of siege engines.
In the third year of the siege, 73AD, the Romans completed a massive earthwork siege ramp up one face of the mountain on which Masada sat. This allowed them to bring the full strength of their siege to bear and penetrate the walls, a feat impossible before due to the topography of the mountain itself. When the Romans entered the stronghold, they found that the fighters have killed their families and then committed suicide.
Nowadays, IDF soldiers take an oath claiming that “Masada won’t fall again.” Oddly, Israel attempts to relate at its very heart to the worst Zealots in Jewish history. Modern Israel has sanctified its violence, proving—beyond any doubt—that it doesn’t belong to God.
An extremist splinter group of the Zealots was known as sicarii. Under their cloaks they concealed sicae, small daggers, from which they received their name. At assemblies, and pilgrimages to the Temple Mount, they stabbed their enemies: Romans, Herodians, and wealthy Jews supporting Roman rule. In modern times, they would have been called “terrorists.”
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These Jewish Sicarii had been recently revived as the Sikrikim (a term derived from Sicarii; Hebrew speakers find it easier to pronounce it than the Latin term). This is a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews based in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood Meah Shearim in Jerusalem, and in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
They gained international attention for acts of violence they committed against Orthodox Jewish institutions and individuals, as well as their December 2011 protest against the State of Israel, during which they used yellow Star of David badges and were dressed in concentration camp uniforms (see picture).
Make no mistakes, the modern Sicarii are no exception in the State of Israel. They may be extremist and violent fanatics, but they are mimicking what they see from the state: extrajudicial executions, institutional terror, and a total disregard for the rule of law.
The State of Israel has not only violated its founding conditions (see Is Israel Sovereign?), but is also rejecting the rule of its own law, consciously applying terror in order to impose the will of the few, the Warring Family Oligarchy. This has not been sanctioned even by its own people and clearly violates international law and conventions. Israel has become the clearest instance ever of a Terror State.
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