How To Win
The Kassam Terror War
Updated November 22, 2006
A headline in Maariv newspaper last week sums it up: **“IDF Despairs”**. Jerusalem Posts editorial Nov. 16, “Stop the Kassams now” provides no military solution. PM Olmert in Jerusalem Post Nov. 17 is headlined: “No ”˜quick fix` to Kassam attacks”.
Our military commanders, Cabinet Ministers and pundits tell us it`s not possible to win the war against the Kassams. That the best we can do is continue searching for the launching pads and hitting the rocketeers from the air.
Israel`s successes are too few to make a decisive difference. Our only solace is that Kassam fatalities are infrequent and the wounded civilian casualty count is low. Damage to homes and buildings is containable.
The most serious damage is to the mental condition of people in small towns like Sderot. Their suffering clearly affects the psyche of the children and adults. They have experienced too many traumas, too many siren warnings, too many unexpected explosions, too many miracles.
Worst of all is the despair of knowing that our wonderful IDF has no effective answer. Many residents are not shy to admit they dont know how much longer theyll be able to grin and bear it. Lots are reported to be leaving or have left Sderot. Who can blame them?
Yet there is a relatively inexpensive military answer to the Kassams within the restrictions of Disproportionate Response.
That is to replicate their Kassam missiles with those of our own. And to lob the same number we receive every day into their populated areas next day. Plus 25 more.
During the evening news services we should announce the number of Kassams well be launching next day. And we should add this message daily: ***“Well stop when you stop.”*** Whenever they start up again, so do we.
Plus 25? Yes, the extra 25 is a reasonable attempt to achieve numerical equivalence since the terrorists already has a head start, having fired over 1,500 missiles at us since disengagement. That`s downright unfair and clearly disproportionate. The least we are entitled to is catch up.
At 25 per day, that will take 60days to balance the Hamasreign of Kassam terror. Then well have achieved a proportional balance (allowing for the fact that we would be excluding the large number of Kassams fired before disengagement).
How long will Hamas be able to take the punishment they so happily dish out to us with almost universal silence if not approval? Id be surprised if they withstand it for longer than a week or two. For once were giving their civilians what they`re giving ours, plus 25, what would be their point of continuing?
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November 11th, 2006 at 7:45 am
We have considered this idea but there really has to a good reason why not. We should be cleverer than that. What has happened to the Jewish brain?
November 19th, 2006 at 6:09 am
You are quite right and the IDF could have done this wiith shell fire a long time ago but unfortunatly enough of our people think this brings us down to Arab levels and say so to the outside rather than keeping the dissent inside.
As it is the Arabs and friends have already reversed the argument that Israel has fired more shells and worse done so effectively. I think the PR problem is not to have repeated back the Hamas promise to make Sderot a ghost town and then to have simply bulldozed Beit Hanun. Fortunately these two last points are still feasible.
Other jokes could be to have a drone fly over Gaza day and night with a “squawk box” broadcasting dog whistle at one end of the spectrum and infra sound at the other either through speakers, or broadcast low power on the Arab radio and TV wavelengths. The one would keep the dogs barking all hours and the other would upset the humans’ sleep and minds.
November 20th, 2006 at 3:42 am
But I have no doubt the UN would condemn such action because, under the UN Charter, only Palestinians and Hezbollah are permitted to target Israeli civilians.
November 21st, 2006 at 7:28 am
Agree!! However we should start out by declaring at the UN that we are not going to tolerate the Kassem attacks no more. Henceforth we will respond in kind with the same number of hits as we sustained, except that ours will be 155 mm Howitzer shells fired randomly onto non determined areas in Gaza, around the clock, in direct immediate response prompted by their previous days’ attacks. If that will not suffice — we shall double the reprisal. Throughout the process, we may invite UN observers to monitor the interchange from the gan yeladim in Sderot. Dr. I. H.
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:54 am
In the film The Untouchables Sean Connery advises Kevin Costner (Eliot Ness), “You wanna get Capone? Here’s how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That’s the Chicago way! And that’s how you get Capone.
I’m not at all for proportionate response. We will never win in Iraq because we play nice–I would have carpet-bombed Fallujah and Sadr City. But now Bush wants to NEGOTIATE with Ahmadijihad.
American gangsters discussed their hatred of Bobby Kennedy and decided to hit John Kennedy because “if you cut off the tail the dog still barks, so you cut off the head.
Taking out the regimes in Damascus and Tehran would go a long way toward moving the “peace process” forward.
It’s Iran and Syria against Israel–and yet Bush has FORGOT his labeling Iran part of the Axis of Evil. He’s in limbo. Those who followed him into this war now sense he is uncertain where he hears the trumpets. So he’s gone to Daddy to get him to fix it.
I don’t like Jim Baker very much, and I certainly don’t like Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert Gates and their 2004 CFR report calling for negotiating with Iran.p>p>We need to blow the hell out of that weaselly little Hitler and that whole nest of islamonazis–BEFORE they do their nuclear number.
I have very little patience with our president, and I am sure it will diminish.
It’s going to be an excruciatingly long two years and a very dagerous transition at that time.
Western civilization depends on finding a spine to fill the Oval Office.
If you can get your people to throw missiles back–with interest–I and those I respect here will applaud.
April 2nd, 2007 at 12:14 am
No, no, Jock me boy… you shut off the juice and the water and then make demands – i.e. permanent Arab evacuation of Gaza to Egypt or starvation of the Gaza Arabs. It’s no longer an issue of beating the shit out of the Arabs, it’s now a matter of breaking their will to resist. Thirst kills faster than hunger, and thirsty people will flee for their lives – in this case, to get a glass of water. When they try to break through to get into Israel, you slaughter them as they run, like rats. But the Gaza Arabs are not the real target here. The Qassams are not the real issue, though they appear to be at first blush. The threats of Egypt, Syria and Iran are the real issues.
It was the threat of genocidal extermination that got the Japanese to surrender in 1945. We need a similar strategy with Egypt. Having caused the death of more than 65 million Egyptians, we can deal with the Iranians and the Syrians in a credible manner. They’ll pay attention when we speak.
May 7th, 2007 at 12:30 am
Kol Hakavod,
You’re almost the kind of hawk that I am. If memory serves me, the strategic bombing of Germany was in response to the bombing of London. Was it disproportionate? You bet. Was it aimed at destroying urban populations? Oh yeah. Did it win the war? That’s why you and I are still here.