Israeli tanks yesterday fired five shells that blasted the car of Salah Darwaza turning it into a rubble of twisted and charred metal while the 38-year-old Palestinian was instantly torn to bits, transformed into unrecognizable pieces of flesh. The assassination of Darwaza near Nablus this morning comes as the latest in a series of “hits” carried out as part of Israel’s official policy of assassinations and extra-judicial killings (as well as other forms of cold-blooded murder) being carried out against the captive Palestinian population under occupation.

Gun ships, missiles, tanks, shells, explosive devices, remote control detonations, and direct shootings have all been employed in this gangster-type policy of individual “liquidations”—euphemistically described by Israeli spokesperson Raanan Gissin as “interceptions.”

The relatively tame expression of “targeted killings” used by US officials does not begin to encompass the full horror of this unique type of state terrorism.

So far, these “executions” have claimed the lives of 44 Palestinian activists and innocent bystanders. The Palestinian human rights organization LAW has documented 21 individual cases in addition to five bystanders.

It is astounding that any official government policy in the 21st century can be so twisted as to adopt such tactics, usually relegated to the nether world of criminals and gangsters.

The Israeli cabinet meets, draws out the next list of victims, and dispatches its death squads to carry out the assassinations. This mobster modus operandi would have done any “god father” proud.

It follows then that the Israeli armed forces thereby are transformed into a collection of “hit men,” thugs and goons who are ordered to do the dirty work of their paymasters.

Is this how the Israeli people envisaged the role of their government and the duties of their sons and daughters who had been called to serve their country as members of the strongest army in the region?

If the fact of an inhuman and immoral occupation is not enough to make the Israeli public at least question official policy and practice, then the degradation of the very essence of citizenship should.

While many may have succeeded in distancing themselves from the horrific crimes of extremist settlers on the rampage terrorizing innocent Palestinian civilians, by using the “we’re here—they’re there” argument, this form of criminality hits closer to home.

In fact, this type of “home grown” gangsterism will ultimately backfire, its impact felt more at home than anywhere else.