[edanm]

The Iranian general was actively working to help arm Hezbollah, who have been i a low-grade conflict with Israel since October 7th (and before). Think Israel and Hezbollah shooting rockets at each other back and forth for the last 6 months kind of conflict.

Because of this conflict, Israel has ~80k citizens who have had to evacuate their homes because they are too close to the border, and they are afraid to come back with Hezbollah continuing to attack.

See e.g. this random article: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-global...

> According to a report in The Guardian, Zahedi “commanded units in Lebanon and Syria and was most likely a critical figure in Tehran’s relationship with Hezbollah and Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad”.

> Arab News quoted a US Department of the Treasury statement from August 3, 2010, saying that Zahedi “also acted as a liaison to Hezbollah and Syrian intelligence services and is reportedly charged with guaranteeing weapons shipments to Hezbollah.”

[leereeves]

In terms of international law (for what that's worth), that is a dangerous precedent. Is a US general a legitimate target for Russia now, because we're arming their enemy?

AFAIK, even during the Cold War, when the US was arming Russia's enemies (like Afghanistan) and Russia was arming the US's enemies (like Vietnam), neither nation went so far as to assassinate generals from the other.

We even asked Ukraine not to attack a Russian general.[1]

So, historically, it seems like what Israel did would not generally be considered justified.

(OTOH, we did assassinate Yamamoto, but we were actively at war with Japan.)

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=40049703

[edanm]

I mean, the US did assassinate Soleimani, an Iranian general, in 2020: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Qasem_Soleima... . So I wouldn't exactly call this a precedent.

But yes, this is a complicated issue.

[leereeves]

That link does say:

> Some experts, including the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, considered the assassination [of Soleimani] as a likely violation of international law as well as U.S. domestic laws.

[edanm]

Yeah, I was only pointing out that it wasn't a precedent.

(And btw, imagine Iran having then sent 150 missiles aimed at the US. Seems to me like the US would respond.)

[datascienced]

Is there any gentlemanlyness at play in those examples or is it just all tactics.