[mburbank]

I'd suggest a multi-pronged approach. First, with the co-operation of the united states, massive aid to the Palestinians. Help with irrigation, land reform, sanitation, food aid, education. I know the US does some of this, but the more the better. Any ground level assistance to alleviate suffering. I'd stop new settlements being built and I'd pull back the ones already up. I'd stop the use of collective punishment. Bulldozing houses, even though it may often be very useeful in depriving insurgents of cover, is a sure perscription for making people hate you. This also goes for firing heavy duty artillery are single targets. It's almost impossible to do this without killing a bunch of people standing nearby. I would end assasination because no matter how guilty the person is, how much they deserve to die and how many lives their death might save (something you can't know) it isn't justice. It's the military acting as judge, jury and executioner. If you want to draw a visible distinction between the good guys and the bad guys, you can't do it this way.

I would step up aggressive police actions with highly public, highly open trials, full rights provided, full access to evidence, totally transparent and monitored by multiple international legal experts.

A lot of soldiers would die this way. A lot of innocent people would probably die, becuase justice is slow. But a lot of people are already dieing, and what I'm suggesting might possibly move toward peace. It would certainly reduce the motivation for future terrorists and combat the idea that Israelis have no right to live. It would strengthen ties with allies. Unless you believe that all the Palestinains are completely insane murderers beyond any hope of redemption, and if you do believe that then I see no reason to pussyfoot around and Israel should declare outright war with the entire people.

I think as a Jew and a Westerner that Israel should do this with or without Palestinian cooperation, with or without an end to terrorsim. First, because a small group of people can commit terrorist acts and if you say all terrorism must cease before any negotiation you have given all the power of decision to the terrorists. THAT to me is appeasement. Terrorists don't want peace, they want violence and bloodshed and misery, not just for your people but for their own. The misery of their peers is their most potent recruitment tool. Second, because it is the right thing to do, the humane, civilized thing to do. I don't think you can fight Barbarians by becoming barbaric.

Look at the way people commit to war. They accept suffering and loss and terror and destruction. They say, that's the way war is, terrible things happen in war. Why is war worth that kind of risk and peace is not? Why will we commit the vast bulk of our treasure to war, why is the pinacle of technology weaponry? What if we put our resources and our energy and our hearts into attaining peace? What if we were as willing to die for peace as we are to die for war?

Concidering the current state of human technology and ingenuity, I think that as a species if we do not commit to peace with the same full measure that we all go to war, we will certainly wipe ourselves out. This may be inevitable. But I'd rather die working to stop that from happening.

Seriously. The palestinian/Israeli conflict is a microcosm for the world, and a lot of people from political scientists to born again rapture groupies think this conflict has the potential to eventually drag the whole world in. What do you think the chances of a winner emerging from that one are? I think any risk, any wound absorbed, any burden carried would be worth the price if some sort of peace could be forged there.

I think if the Palestinians laid down their arms, sat down in the streets and stopped eating they'd win the day as surely as Ghandi did. I wish they would, I wish they could see how much they had to gain. That kind of a cultural seea change would take an Ilsamic Ghandi, and someone would almost certainly kill him, but it's not impossible.

Why does it have to be the Israelis who give, who absorb the suffering? I have no idea. But I think it would be a mitzvah to try as hard as possible.