A Contrarian ELONGATED TWEET ABOUT ISRAEL’S INABILITY TO KILL YASSER ARAFAT

The following is a contrarian mini-Blog, really an elongated tweet, because this Blogger has no substantive support, research, eyewitness testimony or deathbed confessions to support his contrary belief. This Blogger’s contention is all rumor, drawn from a conversation with an Israeli in Copenhagen, a conversation fueled by aquavit.

The respected Israeli journalist, Ronen Bergman has written a brilliant new book, RISE AND KILL FIRST, about the Israeli state sponsored assassination bureau.

“Since World War II, Bergman calculates, the Jewish state and its pre-state paramilitary organizations have assassinated more people than any other country in the Western world — some 2,300 “targeted killing operations,” most of them against Palestinians, but also aimed at Egyptians, Syrians, Iranians and others …WASHINGTON POST.”

. “Summary executions of suspects who posed no immediate threat, violations of the laws of Israel and the rules of war — were not renegade acts by rogue operatives,” Bergman writes in “Rise and Kill First.” “They were officially sanctioned extrajudicial killings.”

Israel’s security apparatus had two philosophical pillars to support its justification for extrajudicial killings.

a) Cicero- “In times of war, the laws fall.”

b) The Talmud- “ If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.”

One of the leitmotif’s of Mr. Bergman’s book (which has been excerpted in the NEW YORK TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE) is Israel’s inability to kill the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization(PLO), Yasser Arafat.

Seemingly Arafat was extraordinarily lucky.

The book describes the moral anguish Israeli Security went through over whether to kill Arafat with civilians present.

All the villains, those who wanted Arafat dead at any cost, are conveniently dead in 2017.

This Blogger was on his way back to America, through Copenhagen from East Germany. The Israeli and he were discussing Roman Emperors.

This was after the Israeli assassination of Khalil al-Wazir, (his nom de guerre was Abu Jihad); he was Arafat’s brilliant, charismatic second in command.

A team of Israeli commandos landed outside of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia

( the PLO was headquartered there at the time). The commandos went to Abu Jihad’s home, broke into his bedroom and pumped 52 bullets into him, in front of his wife.

The Israeli was speaking, in English, “….Gerry, do you know why Tiberius picked Caligula to be Emperor over Claudius?....because he thought the Roman citizenry did not respect him…..he wanted to give them an Emperor so bad that they would look back and say….my God we miss Tiberius…..we are using Tiberius’ logic in reverse….we killed Abu Jihad, but we will never kill Arafat,because he is the most inept, dumbest, most corrupt, incompetent Arab in the world….if we kill him he will be replaced by a smart Arab…..so we only kill the smart, charismatic, competent Arabs…..all those assassination attempts Arafat are staged to make him look good…..”

So there you have it; Arafat was not lucky; he was a beneficiary of astute Israeli cleverness.

So there you have it, a drunken conversation in Copenhagen against the illustrious, well researched, well documented illustrious tome of Mr. Bergman.

So there you have it.

YASSER ARAFAT

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