[r9etb]

This could be the straw.... How many times have we said this?

As awful as they are, these bomb attacks do not represent a fundamental threat to Israel's existence.

It's important to remember that the threshold for an all-out Israeli response is much different from ours. They're small and surrounded, meaning that if Israel ever decides to attack for real, they will literally be putting their country on the line. If they lose, they die.

By comparison, we never had to worry that our response to the 9/11 attacks might result in the complete destruction of the United States.

[mmmmmmmm....... donuts]

Actually, they do represent an existential threat. What's the point of Israel the country if the people can't move around like normal human beings? Answer: there is none. Just because the Palestinians can't drive tanks into Tel Aviv, just because Israeli buildings aren't likely to come crumbling down, doesn't make it any less threatening. It's interesting, when Arafat was asked once why they use suicide bombers, he replied, 'because we don't have f-16s.' The implication surely being, if they had F-16s they would try to blow up entire cities.