Kill those who rise up to kill us’ — a prime minister’s chilling tweet

Israel/Palestine

Philip Weiss on June 12, 2014 55 Comments

 

 

Kill those who rise up to kill us’ — a prime minister’s chilling tweet

    

Netanyahu congratulating new Israeli president Reuven Rivlin yesterday

Yesterday Gazan militants fired a rocket into Israel, striking a road and causing no casualties, and Israel responded with an attack on the Gaza Strip that killed one man blamed for attacks on Israel. Then the Israeli prime minister celebrated the attack in a macabre manner:

Prime Minister Netanyahu on the IDF-ISA [Israel Security Agency] operation in the northern Gaza Strip: Our policy is clear – kill those who rise up to kill us.

Reminiscent of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
The man killed by the Israelis is described as a 33-year-old jihadist, by the IDF.
But the attack hurt others– the Washington Post says three others, on the road near the motorcycle that the 33-year-old man was on. Two were injured critically.
Responding to Netanyahu’s tweet, Gaza activist Maysara al Arabeed tweets two photos of a child being treated for severe injuries and says:

you mean this 7 yrs old boy that u killed today ?!

You have to go to Al Jazeera to learn that the Israeli attack injured a child — by the looks of its photo the same child in the al Arabeed photos.
Some hawks and militants celebrate Netanyahu’s war dance on twitter, but other responses to Netanyahu’s tweet are sharply critical.

“how many Palestinians & children died because of your IDF-ISA operations,”

this Wisconsin follower of Ron Paul asks.
Scott Roth wonders whether there is any other world leader as “crass” as Netanyahu and whether his “kill those who rise up to kill us” tweet violates twitter rules.
Buber Zionist responds:

Netanyahu is Israel’s PM. Denying him service would be denying Israel’s PM service which would be denying Israel service.

Roth didn’t find that persuasive. Ali Abunimah responds:

I made a formal abuse complaint to @twitter last time @netanyahu used it to threaten murder. Got not response.

Meantime, the State Department condemned the rocket attack from Gaza and blamed Hamas. 

we condemn all rocket fire from Gaza. It is unprovoked aggression against civilian targets and is totally unacceptable. We welcome President Abbas’s prompt and outspoken condemnation of this attack. We note that he has demanded that all the Palestinian factions remain committed to the ceasefire agreement that was signed in Cairo in 2012, and we expect the Palestinian Authority will do everything in its power to prevent attacks into Gaza – from Gaza into Israel. But we acknowledge the reality that Hamas currently controls Gaza.

AP’s Matt Lee asked the State spokesperson how long the U.S. can support the reunification government if there are attacks from Gaza. Of course, Netanyahu also blamed Hamas and the new Palestinian government, in a statement that restated his biblical policy.

“Our policy is clear – kill those who rise up to kill us,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said… ”This is the true face of Hamas; it is continuing to plan terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens even as it inside the Palestinian government….”