Cycle of Violence pt. MXMVLIII

I wanted to write about how Israeli defence minister, Shaul Mofaz called for the assinations of democratically elected members of the Palestinian Authority.

Like usual, Richard Silverstein has already written a brilliant post on the matter so I'll just link to him since he says everything I would have, but he does it much better than I can.

I will just say that many people have made the point that this is election cycle posturing.

These statements may be election year posturing but it's a little irrational to make threats, ones that are legitimized by past actions, against a democratically elected government and not expect them to feel as though they need to defend themselves as well.

Also its not all just talk:

“Mr Mofaz’s comments came a day after two Islamic Jihad militants and three other Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in Gaza City.”

Can someone please point me to the Palestinian act of violence that prompted this action? Considering that the Israeli right (and some on the left) consistantly use the defense idiom whereby they only respond to violence as needed, it would be nice to know what action they are responding to considering innocent people have been killed.

Considering HAMAS has observed a ceasefire over the last year it seems downright idiotic to give them justification to start new attacks. Or is that the problem? Not enough blood spilt lately for right-wing politicians to make hay over?

Well I'm sure HAMAS is happy too, they're more than happy to use Palestinian suffering to promote their cause too. Looks like its a mighty good day for the pernicious.