An editorial in Arab News, a Saudi-owned newspaper affiliated with a-Sharq al-Awsat, entitled ?Utterly Reprehensible?, takes the American Administration to task for its hypocrisy regarding targeted killings. As in the Israeli press, the Saudi newspaper questions the paradox that Israeli targeted killings of terrorist leaders is condemned by the US State Department, while the CIA is apparently behind an identical policy regarding al-Qaeda terrorists. Of course, the Saudi complaint regarding the contradictory US policy comes from a very different side of the equation than the Israeli complaint does.
In reference to the successful American operation in Yemen, when ?Ali Qaed Senyan al-Harthi was killed by a missile fired at his car, the Saudi editorial chastises that ?in a civilized society, extra-judicial murders are not acceptable.... it was not for the American CIA to act as judge, jury and executioner. Though it would undoubtedly have been far more difficult and might have caused the loss of further lives, the right thing to have done would have been to have apprehended Al-Harthi and brought him to trial. Butchering him and his body guards with a remotely fired missile was wrong.?
Afterwards, when US officials reiterated that the administration continues to oppose the policy of targeted killings employed by the Israelis against Arab terrorists, Arab News states, ?many in the Middle East? saw that ?as a lie worthy of the biggest Goebbels ever told.... How, when Washington?s secret army, the CIA, has just done the self-same thing, can anyone believe this American claim??
?In fact,? continues the editorial, ?what the al-Harthi assassination lays bare is the fact that the United States believes that, while it cannot be seen to be endorsing Zionist extra-judicial murders, privately it finds this uncivilized savagery by the Israelis perfectly acceptable.? That duality is ?one more double standard that can only add to the despair of those in the Arab world... how can Washington act as an honest broker when it is guilty of exactly the same deadly crimes as Zionists?? asks the Arab News.
On the flip side, the editorial continues, ?If illegal violence is seen as a solution in Washington?s war against terror, how can the US possibly condemn Palestinians for fighting back against the terror imposed upon them by Zionists? The Land of the Brave and Free sent an unmanned drone to do its murderous dirty work. At least Palestinian fighters, however misguided, are prepared to die along with their unfortunate victims. Is it Washington?s case that it is all right to assassinate innocent civilians including children and women provided the murderer or murderers don?t get killed or hurt??
Having established his belief in moral equivalence, the editor is at least willing, exceptionally, to apply it in reverse and condemn Arab terrorism, as he does the US or Israeli response thereto: ?There can be no exceptions to murder. They are all crimes, in the Yemen, in the West Bank and Gaza, on the streets of Israel or in the center of New York or at the Pentagon in Washington. The United States must not persist with this dangerous dishonoring of the rules of justice upon which all civilized societies are built. If it does, it will be making itself no better than the international terrorists it hunts.?
In reference to the successful American operation in Yemen, when ?Ali Qaed Senyan al-Harthi was killed by a missile fired at his car, the Saudi editorial chastises that ?in a civilized society, extra-judicial murders are not acceptable.... it was not for the American CIA to act as judge, jury and executioner. Though it would undoubtedly have been far more difficult and might have caused the loss of further lives, the right thing to have done would have been to have apprehended Al-Harthi and brought him to trial. Butchering him and his body guards with a remotely fired missile was wrong.?
Afterwards, when US officials reiterated that the administration continues to oppose the policy of targeted killings employed by the Israelis against Arab terrorists, Arab News states, ?many in the Middle East? saw that ?as a lie worthy of the biggest Goebbels ever told.... How, when Washington?s secret army, the CIA, has just done the self-same thing, can anyone believe this American claim??
?In fact,? continues the editorial, ?what the al-Harthi assassination lays bare is the fact that the United States believes that, while it cannot be seen to be endorsing Zionist extra-judicial murders, privately it finds this uncivilized savagery by the Israelis perfectly acceptable.? That duality is ?one more double standard that can only add to the despair of those in the Arab world... how can Washington act as an honest broker when it is guilty of exactly the same deadly crimes as Zionists?? asks the Arab News.
On the flip side, the editorial continues, ?If illegal violence is seen as a solution in Washington?s war against terror, how can the US possibly condemn Palestinians for fighting back against the terror imposed upon them by Zionists? The Land of the Brave and Free sent an unmanned drone to do its murderous dirty work. At least Palestinian fighters, however misguided, are prepared to die along with their unfortunate victims. Is it Washington?s case that it is all right to assassinate innocent civilians including children and women provided the murderer or murderers don?t get killed or hurt??
Having established his belief in moral equivalence, the editor is at least willing, exceptionally, to apply it in reverse and condemn Arab terrorism, as he does the US or Israeli response thereto: ?There can be no exceptions to murder. They are all crimes, in the Yemen, in the West Bank and Gaza, on the streets of Israel or in the center of New York or at the Pentagon in Washington. The United States must not persist with this dangerous dishonoring of the rules of justice upon which all civilized societies are built. If it does, it will be making itself no better than the international terrorists it hunts.?