Yesterday’s nomination of Tzipi Livni as Kadima’s candidate for Israel’s upcoming national election (and especially the pleasant reception of the news by Ramallah) confirms two immutable facts about Israel/Palestinian relations: 1) Israel’s tradition of electing killers to the highest office is alive and well… Likewise, 2) the Palestinian puppet leadership always lick it all up.

Let me elaborate…

To begin, yesterday’s contest between Tzipi Livni and Shaul Mofaz was an old-fashioned battle between two evils. Despite Kadima’s reputation for being “moderate” and offering Israel’s best hope for brokering peace with the Palestinians, both candidates were (in Livni’s case, still is) entirely unfit to rule.

On the one hand, yesterday’s nomination offered Shaul Mofaz – a man notorious for recent revelations that, during his tenure as commander of the IDF in the West Bank and Gaza, he called for 70 slain Palestinians per day. This, as well as his role in demolishing hundreds of Palestinian homes during the same period, has led to accusations of war crimes. David Kretzmer, emeritus professor of international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says that recent evidence suggest that Mofaz “committed serious offenses, some of which at least, fall into the category of war crimes.”

On the other hand, we had Tzipi Livni, a former Mossad secret agent and current Minister of Foreign Affairs. The daughter of a Eitan Livni, chief of operations for the Irgun (a well-known Jewish terrorist organization from the British Mandate period), Livni was raised in an ultra-nationalistic environment, nurtured in the ‘Greater Israel’ tradition and taught that both sides of the Jordan river belong to the Jews. During her time as a spy in the 1980s, she helped Mossad hunt down Palestinian targets across Europe. During her time with Mossad, moreover, “[she] was not an office girl … She blended in well in European capitals, working with male agents, most of them ex-commandos, taking out Arab terrorists.”

Of course, Israeli Prime Minister’s have frequently taken part in past killings: Examples include Yitzchak Shamir and the murder of UN negotiator Count Folke Bernadotte, Ariel Sharon’s role in the Sabra and Shatila massacres, Menachem Begin’s role in the Stern Gang terrorist group, etc. But if Tzipi Livni becomes Prime Minister, she will be one of the few to have personally killed people.

Because the next Israeli Prime Minister will effectively control the lives of the occupied Palestinian population, Palestinians should be justifiably alarmed. The situation is even worse should LIvni be unable to form a ruling coalition in the comming weeks and face former Prime Minister and leader of the far-right Likud party, Benjamin Netanyahu, in early national elections. Netanyahu is known for his radically hardline approach to the Palestinians in his own right. Immediately following Yitzchak Rabin’s assassination in 1995, Netanyahu froze all negotiations with the Palestinians and withdrew from many of Israel’s obligations to turn over land to Palestinian autonomy. He is known for his vitriolic, racist opinions towards Palestinians, joking once that Gazans should use their airport as a football field after it was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes… In general, he is a charmingly pleasant fellow.

Though neither Livni nor Netanyahu will be good for Palestinians, the puppet leadership has ‘welcomed’ Livni.

(sigh)

Is there anything more predictable than the PA’s defeatism in the face of Israeli contempt.

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « Noam Chomsky: Ossetia-Russia-Georgia
• » Jihad Prevention Act

• BROWSE / IN Abbas, Mahmoud Featured International Law Israel Mossad Palestine Palestinian Authority Sharon, Ariel Shin Bet War Crimes
• « Maureen Dowd: Bering Straight Talk
• » Louisa Waugh: Life Inside the Siege of Gaza