“Throughout its history, Israel willfully and systematically committed premeditated extrajudicial killings of Palestinians and other Arabs as official state policy — carried out with explicit high-level political, judicial and military authorization and allegedly in ’self-defense’ against individuals threatening Israeli security. Government officials even admit that certain persons are targeted, and Dan Haluts, former Israeli Army Chief of Staff, once told the Washington Post (in August 2006) that ‘Targeted killing is the most important method in the fight against ‘terrorism.” In other words, premeditated murder is acceptable as long as it’s properly classified. Almost never do Israeli government or military officials show evidence that targeted individuals acted violently or threatened Jewish citizens. Simply calling them ‘terrorists’ is justification enough — to kill them extrajudicially, with no recourse to due process or respect for international law that bans the practice for any reason.” (11/19/08)