Hamas Leader Killed

[KennyR]

This thread could also be titled "How NOT to fight terrorism" or "How to get your enemies to kill 200 of your innocent civilians in one easy step".

A lot of Israelis will die for this over the next few months. And even more Palestinians will die in the reprisals. And so on.

[KennyR]

Huh, what kind of stupid statement is that? This money given to the Palestinians, how many anti-tank rockets or anti-aircraft missiles has it bought? Why are the Palestinians still totally defenceless when Israel decides to go on another little rampage?

Whatever money the Palestinians get is either spent on food and medicine, or wasted on small arms that are useless against the Israelis. Ergo, it's not much. If every time Israeli tanks went into Palestine two or three of them got nailed, we'd see a lot more negotiation and a lot less illegal actions by Israel.

And on the other side, tourism and selling oranges hardly is likely to generate the billions required to maintain Israel's huge military. No wonder the Arab world hates America. If it isn't conspiring and throwing Arab states against each other, it's giving money to Israel and then trying to say its mediating a peace. The hypocrisy is absolutely stunning.

[KennyR]

AccyD wrote:
You could argue that they fel that in the long-term this would actually solve their problems.

In the short-term yes, more people will feel inclined to join the "cause" but this will soon reduce unless the Hamas leadership can find another charasmatic leader.

I think they've just run out of things to try. As Israel's rulers slide further and further to the extreme right, they keep escalating their methods to solve the terrorist problem. Or rather, to remove it. They're not interested in solving the issue, which is why they're building a wall to keep it out.

Escalating hasn't worked before, I doubt if it will work now. What if this man was limiting the terrorism for political reasons and his replacement is even more belligerent?

No, this will fail, and a lot of innocent Israelis and even more innocent Palestinians will die for it. It will fail because force isn't the answer - unless of course the violence escalates into plain genocide.

[KennyR]

Wolfe wrote:
What is the answer other than striking out at the leaders of terror.

These leaders are not leaders because they have charisma or wisdom or any other irreplacable attribute. They're leaders because the Palestinians feel they are being treated to a huge injustice, and will rally around anyone or anything that represents resistance to that feeling of injustice.

Those kind of leaders are replacable. The only solution then when using death as a tool is to go on killing until nobody can oppose you. That's called genocide. And Israel are getting dangerously close to treading that path.