Note to Israel: Tit for Tat is Now Way to Go

It appears that Israel has had enough and they are striking back at Hamas.

Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of airstrikes Saturday, killing at least 200 people and wounding 270 others in the single bloodiest day of fighting in decades.

Most of those killed were security men, but civilians were also among the dead. Hamas said all of its security installations were hit and responded with several medium-range Grad rockets at Israel, reaching deeper than in the past. One Israeli was killed and at least four people were wounded in the rocket attacks. With so many wounded, the Palestinian death toll was likely to rise.

The air offensive followed weeks of intense Palestinian rocket and mortar fire on southern Israel, and Israeli leaders had issued increasingly tough warnings in recent days that they would not tolerate continued attacks.

Here is one Israel supporter that hopes that this time Israel holds nothing back. In my opinion, the worst strategy is the sort of tit for tat strategy that appeared to be their staple for many years in the earlier part of this decade. In such a strategy, every terrorist attack, rocket fire, or missile launch was met with an equally aggressive action by Israel. Such a strategy, in my opinion, is the long road to a cycle of violence.



I remember seeing Gene Simmons, of KISS, interviewed by Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly asked Simmons why he was so confrontational. Simmons said that he was of Israeli descent and so if you attack him he hits you back three times harder.



This seems to be a much more effective strategy. There is no doubt that Israel will be viewed in the Middle East as in the wrong and the aggressors. Soon, there will likely be a United Nations condemnation that will need to be vetoed by the United States. Soon, it's likely that the world community will stand in unison in condemnation of "Israel's aggressive action". It's likely that Vladimir Putin, in the irony of geopolitical ironies, will once again call for a measured response.

This will all happen no matter how aggressive Israel is in taking on Hamas. Israel has one of two options now. They can either strike back and pull back, or they can take on Hamas in one final bloody war and end this once and for all. The first option is a lot less bloody for both sides and it will end quickly. For the time being, Hamas will be battered, bruised, and weakened. Make no mistake, if this is merely an aggressive air offensive, Hamas will regroup and they will strike again.

The other option is for Israel to call for an all out war. They can augment the air offensive with an equally tough ground offensive. There is no doubt that such a strategy will produce a lot of deaths on both sides. Many Israeli soldiers will die in what will wind up being a street to street hand to hand combat. This will be tough, brutal and deadly, but it also has the real chance of finishing off Hamas once and for all. If that's what Israel wants, can stomach, and has the will to do. When Israel engaged in a bloody battle with terrorists in Jenin, the world condemned her actions. Yet, that action left many high value terrorists dead, and in the years following this confrontation, deadly terrorist attacks went down dramatically in Israel. In fact, each and everytime Israel follows Simmons' view and strikes back three times as hard, terrorist attacks slow down within her own borders dramatically. Now is the time not merely to strike back three times as hard, but so hard that Hamas is finished off once and for all.

The worst thing that came out of its war with Hezbollah was that Israel stopped before the war was over. Now, Hezbollah is stronger. Hezbollah won because it took Israel's shots and still ended up standing. That only happened because Israel stopped punching before Hezbollah was knocked out. The leadership of Israel didn't have the stomach to finish Hezbollah off. Once public opinion became too strong it cut off its military operation. If Israel does this again with Hamas, that would be the worst thing that could happen.

Israel has two choices. They can make this war the last war against Hamas or they can make this military operation yet another in a long line of tit for tat operations. The first option will be blood, brutal and very deadly, but it will also be final. The second will be relatively painless and easy, but it will lead to another round of relatively painless and easy military operations. I hope this time Israel says that once and for all Hamas will be confronted until each and every one of them is dead.