Targeted killings, often under the guise of the well-known American drone program, are dominating the headlines as well as the academic pages. Here, the writer provides a new analytical framework to look at the widely discussed topic of targeted killing in international law. This paper offers a new perspective on a very contentious and topical question, and allows international lawyers to move beyond the current circular state of the literature on the topic. This is all the more important considering the building furore over the United States' ever-present and often-exposed drone program around the world, and the way in which Israel often brushes against it's immediate neighbours. However, as the writer identifies, there was a lot more to those State's targeted killings within the context of the law than the media headlines would have the public know. Therefore, in using the United States, and the other persistent offender, Israel, as central actors in making his case, the paper has its focus.