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Originally Posted by astralis
JAD,
that was my point. IF israel is going to go to war and clean out hamas, that's the very attitude they need to take. the israelis would need the will to kill hamas (and most likely gaza, as well) down to its last man and woman, morality and int'l outcry be damned. they're not willing, nor are they in a position, to do so.
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Ok. It was just hanging out there.
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for all the israelis have suffered at the hands of palestinian terrorism, they haven't been willing (for both moral, historical, and political reasons) to slaughter the palestinians down to the last man, the way the US was quite willing to do in 1945.
absent this will, the only choice they have is to negotiate, or at least to talk.
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And right they are, too.
Coming back to precendent, I don't think the US was planning to slaughter the Japanese so it could cakewalk into Japan...maybe some fringe strategists favored it, but I haven't come across any mention of a decision to execute a plan like that.
Hiroshima, which comes closest to that end, was at least defensible. Wholesale slaughter would never have been. I realize you are conjecturing to expose the ludicracy of Israel ending its "suffering" by slaughtering the Palestinians right down to the last baby. Were they to do such a thing, I doubt the state of Israel would survive long.
Israel's policy for dealing with militant Palestinians is to exchange blow for blow. It regards being Mr. Nice Guy as a weakness that can be exploited by Hamas, etal. Israel believes that sooner or later the Palestinian people will realize no openings exist in Israel's determination to protect itself and will take what they can get. IMO, the deal gets worse for Palestinians as time passes. They ought to cut a deal asap.