Palestinian People Must Feel the Pain
Reader comment on item: Have Israelis Finally Learned the Strategic Value of Territory?

Submitted by John Harris (United States), Jan 2, 2009 at 22:02

Until the Palestinian people feel sufficient pain to cause them to not just stop supporting Hamas, but actually work against them, this conflict will continue - even if interrupted by brief periods of relative calm. The Israelis must inflict violent and extreme pain on the Palestinians; unfortunately this means killing multitudes of them. History has examples of this. American/UK fire bombing of Japan and Germany ("Bomber Harris"); American combat on Okinawa which may have precipitated Truman's decision to drop the bombs on Japan; etc. The point is not that we want people to die, but that people must die, and in sufficient numbers suddenly and certainly before the Palestinian people will accept responsibility for their actions. The problem is that the Palestinian people view complicity with Israel worse than complicity with Hamas. Israel can remedy this, but the gloves must come off.

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