11-1E30.11 COIF' t...Firirioci

Washington
Grapples
With Killings

Washington
hile the State Department
condemns Israel's targeted
killings of Palestinian militants,
Israel is clutching to the more
lenient approach of Vice President
Dick Cheney.
And Israel's advocates are defend-
ing the policy by conjuring up
images from World War II to show
that the United States once acted in
a very similar manner.
Speaking on "Fox Special Report"
on Aug. 2, Cheney said he believes
the policy of targeted killings could
be justified, at least in Israeli eyes.
"If you've got an organization
that has plotted or is plotting some
kind of suicide bomber attack, for
example, and they have evidence of
who it is and where they're located,
I think there's some justification in
their trying to protect themselves
by preempting," Cheney said.
His words were in sharp contrast
to the official State Department
line. For weeks, the diplomatic
corps has condemned Israel's policy,
saying it furthers — and even aggra-
vates — the cycle of violence.
In the past week, several lawmak-
ers have expressed support for
Israel's policy. A leading Democrat
in the House of Representatives
said Friday that the United States
acted similarly when it tried to
assassinate terrorist mastermind
Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
"It is the ultimate hypocrisy for
anyone, our State Department or
anyone else, to pretend to have the
moral superiority in the face of trag-
ic episodes where innocent children
get killed," said Rep. Tom Lantos
(D-Calif.), noting that the United
States killed thousands of innocent
children when it launched atomic
bombs on Japan in World War II.
American politicians justified the
atomic attacks by saying they
brought the war to an early end,
thereby saving lives.
Israeli officials say their policy of
targeted killings serves the United
States' interests by preventing an
escalation of violence by terrorists
planning major attacks. Opinion is
split, however, over whether the tar-
geted killings reduce violence or, in
fact, escalate it.
Thousands of Palestinians who
turned out for the funerals of the
Hamas men pledged massive retalia-
tion — though Hamas probably
would have claimed other justifica-
tions for attacking Israel even with-
out the recent helicopter attack.
— Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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W

the reverse of Benin's th.inking.
Sharon and his advisers say the policy
— which they call "active self-defense"
— is justified because it targets
Palestinian militants before they can
strike innocent Israeli civilians.
In addition, they argue, Israel only
eliminates activists when it has con-
crete information they have been
involved in deadly terror attacks or are
about to do so, and after the
Palestinian Authority has rebuffed
Israeli demands to arrest the men.
Moreover, the government believes
Arafat still could rein in the violence if
he wished.
They contend that by steadily raising
the pressure on Arafat, they will even-
tually force him to face down the
extremists in the Palestinian camp.

The Hit List

It was this logic, apparently, that con-
vinced Israeli officials to raise the stakes
last week by targeting Mansour and his
senior lieutenant, lama' Selim, in Nablus.
Until that attack, Israel had targeted
Palestinians who had masterminded
terrorist actions against Israelis.
Mansour and Selim, however, were
more than terror masterminds; they
were political and religious leaders
respected throughout the West Bank.
Both had served stints in Israeli and
Palestinian jails as men of influence
capable of inspiring and directing large-
scale operations against Israeli targets.
Targeting Mansour, Israeli analysts
said, showed that Israel no longer
accepted the distinction the funda-
mentalist groups' sought to make
between "military" men who carry out
the attacks and the "political" handlers
who recruit and indoctrinate them.
The killing of Mansour immediately
raised questions about the nature of
Israel's "hit list."
Early in the week, officials read on

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