No Longer Disgusted

One of my friends posted on Facebook “My first inauguration speech to watch. Seldom felt so bored. Hollow phrases never ending... “

 

My response was: “It is wonderful to be bored again and no longer disgusted. “

Extra-judicial executions

It seems to be generally accepted that Israel is behind the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist last week. With this execution, the Trump-Netanyahu double act, in all likelihood, wanted to bind Biden’s hands with regard to the next administration’s Iran policy.

 

Most probably in response, Biden, in an interview he gave the New-York Times’ Tom Friedman, yesterday reconfirmed his approach that “if Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would re-join the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations, and lift the sanctions on Iran that Trump imposed.” 

 

That would be good news.

 

Israel literally is getting away with murder. They are not the only ones: the USA, Russia and Saudi-Arabia have also reportedly been trigger-happy as they pursue those who their rulers wish to remove. In Israel, killing a perceived enemy is a vote-getter, and such extra-judicial killings by the state are an almost certain recipe for political popularity. Therefore, whereas Israeli leaders almost never confirm killings, very often their evasive responses are given with a wink and a nod.

 

Such killings can be considered from three aspects: legal, moral, and practical. Curiously, it is most likely that many of these extra-judicial killings, which are obviously not legal and for which it would be difficult to build a moral case, are of no long-term practical value.

 

We need to openly discuss what means we allow our governments to use to “defend democracy”. Moreover, those European countries, opposed to extra-judicial killings by the state, should not let their allies get away with them.