Suicide attacks are actually a sign that they are losing or a sign that they cannot succeed with anything less.

It is a desperate tactic, and one that is incredibly wasteful of the ranks of the attackers. Remember, a suicide attacker CANNOT BE USED AGAIN, unlike a SOF unit or conventional military unit. In order for the side utilizing suicide bombers to be stopped, it will require a “sea change moment” event, an event that “changes everything” as far as the attacker is concerned’; an event that drives home that the eventual “end game” is total annihilation.

The use of 2 atomic bombs in Japan was one such event. The Japanese were faced with genocide if they didn’t surrender. Just 2 weapons killed outright 150,000 people. It was “the handwriting on the wall” that drove home to the Japanese government emotionally what they already knew logically — that they were going to be ground into nothing if they didn’t surrender, the “divine wind” notwithstanding.

Yes, there is a question that had the Allies not demanded unconditional surrender, the Japanese might have been willing to surrender earlier. But this would be the wrong assumption because “surrender” was absolute anathema to the Japanese warrior culture. Better death (seppuku), by their own hand, than surrender to an enemy.

Their brutal, murderous treatment of POWs (the Bataan Death march, the Cabanatuan prison camp, etc.), was a reflection on their belief that people who surrender are lower than the lowest animal, and no longer worthy of being treated decently.

It is going to take a similar “sea change event” to end the suicide bombers in Gaza and the West Bank.

Golda’s comment notwithstanding, the “Palestinians” are not going to stop as part of a peace agreement. They will never recognize Israel — unless forced to.

And that is what, I am afraid, is what it will take, and what Israel will be forced to do.

Israel has a choice — continue on in the mode they are in now. Hoping for a negotiated settlement and a peace treat like they have with Jordan and Egypt.

Or do something that they (and we) would abhor to achieve that “sea change moment” — such as using nuclear weapons on southern Lebanon and Gaza, and starving out the West Bank.

Whether this is part of their plan, I do not know. But the act of evacuating Jews from Gaza and reducing their settlements in the West Bank is a necessary first step to such an attack. In doing so, they are removing potential hostages and concentrating their enemies, thus reducing possible “friendly” collateral casualties.

And it would reduce them to doing what was done to them — committing genocide. And I believe that this would shake Israelis to their very souls — and would result certainly in the fall of their government, maybe even their democracy. Further, the reaction in foreign capitals would seriously damage any Israeli government that survived, as well as the people of Israel.

But with Iran close to obtaining nuclear weapons themselves, the Israelis may no longer have much choice, as I do not believe that the Israelis will go quietly into the long night.

I know that this is a harsh concept to grasp — and a harsh one to even state. But we saw in the video that Palestinians have already “groomed” the next generation of Jew Haters, and they certainly do not have much else to negotiate with (as if they were interested in negotiating, that is).

The relentless attacks on Israel by the suicide bombers, bolstered by their religious fanaticism, leaves little room to maneuver.

And by the way, as noted by some of you above, WE face the same problem.

georgej on November 22, 2006 at 1:25 AM