Thugs to
the fore

While the Israeli Defence Force was celebrating the sixth anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s slaughter-by-bulldozer by firing tear-gas canisters from close range into the head of another American peace activist, designated Israeli PM and favoured local spittoon Binyamin Netanyahu tried to patch together a government that would best allow them to continue their brutality unchecked.

As though getting along with the rest of the world was now entirely off Israel’s agenda, Netanyahu has offered the post of Foreign Minister to the racist thug Avigdor Lieberman of the extreme-right Israel Beitenu party and the position of Defence Minister to his old pal and accused war criminal Moshe Ya’alon. Additionally, Lieberman’s party, which has long called for all citizens to pledge blind allegiance to the nation or be deported, will effectively have total control over the Justice Ministry.

For Ya’alon’s part, the former IDF chief of staff has made a hobby of dodging charges stemming from his involvement in both the 1996 shelling of Qana and 2002 assassination of a Hamas leader that left 14 civilians dead.

by SCOTT SAXON