Posted on 06/28/2006 1:03:12 PM PDT by Nachum
gone? Taught in school?--YES!
thanks for the clarification,,,for a second i thought there was a 4th hostage.
Why shouldn't they do this? Their previous tactics (suicide bombings) worked. They have been rewarded for their savagery over and over.
Quite the opposite, IMHO. Threats are meaningless hot air, and when not carried out they destroy your credibility. Try escalating threats against a child, all the time failing to follow through - your child will never listen to you, because he/she knows that you don't mean it.
The Pirkei Avot (Wisdom of the Fathers) section of the Talmud says: Say little and do much. Right now, the opposite is being done, and the results are clear.
Israel should have a spokesman come before the world press and simply say this: "Good morning. The government of Israel demands the return of our people, soon and unharmed, and an end to any further kidnappings and terrorist incidents. Failure to comply with this demand will have consequences. Thank you. No, sorry, there will be no questions answered today." That's it...short, to the point, and leaving the crazies wondering what the Joooos are going to do.
And here's what Israel should do when, inevitably, there is a failure to comply: At a minimum, re-take the settlements in Gaza that were given away last year. Don't announce anything, don't show pictures of tanks lined up, don't show soldiers cleaning their rifles, NOTHING. Except that maybe 2 days after the short and sweet announcement there are a bunch of dead Pallies and Israel in control of more territory. Then the announcement to be made is this: "Good morning. As per our warning of Xday, since the PLA and Hamas have failed to return our citizens unharmed, the IDF have visited consequences upon the Arabs in Gaza. We have re-taken X, Y & Z places, AND THE GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL HEREBY PUBLICLY PLEDGES TO ITS CITIZENS, JEWS AROUND THE WORLD, AND TO EVERY PERSON AND GOVERNMENT IN THE WORLD THAT THIS TERRITORY WILL NEVER BE GIVEN AWAY AGAIN. Further, the continuing failure to return our citizens quickly and unharmed will result in additional consequences. Thank you. No, sorry, there will be no questions answered today."
Do this enough times, and not only will the Pallies and the rest of the world know that Israel takes the safety of its citizens seriously, but that it only makes threats that it is willing and able to carry out. Soon the kidnappings and terrorist incidents will stop...and if they don't, you'll soon have several hundred thousand Arabs crowded into a couple square miles of desert.
I hope our State Dept isn't holding them back from a full assault on Gaza.
If the Dept. of Surrender tries to hold Israel back from responding to the kidnapping/killing of its citizens, then Israel should politely tell the DoS that Israel is a sovereign nation, and that the highest duty of its government is to protect its citizens. As such, Israel will do what it believes necessary to accomplish this goal.
I agree that this is really ticking off the Israeli public and the IDF. That, however, is of little consequence when the PM is 2 marbles short.
I appreciate your spirit, but something is holding Israel back. You say they are doing it right, but then why are we hearing about new kidnappings? The Palis don't think Israel can attack. Also they would never expel Palis or retake parts of Gaza (they should, but it would take a Netanyahu).
No, I say they are doing it WRONG. They are doing very little in the way of action, and very much in the way of bombastic threatening - the exact opposite of what they should be doing. I agree that something is holding Israel back...probably the State Dept.'s advice to Bush.
I very much think that they should show some intestinal fortitude and do something similar to what I stated above - even if it means that Condi and the President aren't too happy. What are they going to do, cut off aid to Israel because Israel does what we ourselves would do?
As to expulsions and taking back territory - Israel gave the territory to the Arabs unilaterally, and it can take it back the same way. By Bush's own words of the past several years, the Pallies cannot be parties to a negotiation if they don't stop the terrorism. Done publicly, relying on world (which is to say, US public) opinion to sway policymakers in DC, this will accomplish Israel's goals.
Which helps to explain why the Arabs in Gaza are agressive.
They live lake animals anyway.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.