The very astute Daniel Pipes has a piece on why Israel’s war against terror is producing results. As he notes:
After the execution of Hamas’s other leader, Ahmed Yassin, last month, 60 prominent Palestinians urged restraint in a newspaper ad, arguing that violence would provoke strong Israeli responses that would obstruct aspirations to build an independent “Palestine.” Instead, the signatories called for “a peaceful, wise intifada.”
Ordinary Palestinians, too, are drawing the salutary conclusion that murdering Israelis brings them no benefits. “We wasted three years for nothing, this uprising didn’t accomplish anything,” says Mahar Tarhir, 25, an aluminum-store owner.” Anger and disillusionment have replaced the fighting spirit that once propelled the Palestinian movement,” finds Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, a reporter for Knight Ridder.
While Hamas has been promising horrible retribution, they have not been able to deliver on that threat. The reason is due to the fact that their leadership has been killed, the security fence has prevented thousands of attacks, and the supply of people willing to become shahids for a cause that only brings more misery to the Palestinians is beginning to die up. Suicide bombing is not a sustainable military strategy – there are only so many people insane enough to kill themselves in that way, and when that supply is exhausted the Palestinians are forced to use women and children – most of whom aren’t fanatical or smart enough to be effective bomb delivery systems.
The fact is that the Palestinians are starting to realize that their government is hopelessly corrupt, the intifada will never bring Israel to its knees, and the only result of the campaign of violence has been the destruction of the terrorist groups.
The worst thing that the Israelis could do is justify terrorism through capitulation. Terrorism only works so long as the terrorists believe that violence will give them an advantage – once that illusion disppears, terrorism becomes counterproductive. Israel is showing that the results of terrorism won’t be the destruction of the Israeli state, but the destruction of the terrorists.
