Keep Winning

More and more evidence is emerging that the Intifada, if not yet over, is ending. As posted earlier, there have been a number of articles talking about Palestinian terrorists hiding and running instead of planning attacks; residents of Gaza have been attacking Palestinian tunnel-diggers and weapons smugglers, blaming them for the destruction of homes there; and terrorists proposing cease-fires. As today's Jerusalem Post Opinion points out, this has been accomplished by Israeli military strength and, contrary to the constant bleating of the left about "no military solution", etc.

It wasn't supposed to be thus. We have spent the last several years listening to sanctimonious lectures about how (1) there is no military solution to the conflict; (2) any "escalation" on Israel's part leads to a commensurate Palestinian escalation; (3) "walls never solved anything;" and, finally, (4) what the Palestinians need is hope, not fear.

All this turns out to be demonstrably false. Israeli military escalation has led, unfailingly, to Palestinian de-escalation. Israeli pressure has been followed, unfailingly, by Palestinian reasonableness. The security fence is working as planned everywhere it has been erected. Israeli concessions – giving the Palestinians hope – has merely created openings for violence.

More broadly, the longer Israel prevents the Palestinians from scoring a tactical success, the more Palestinians despair of scoring one. The more they despair, the less they try. The less they try, the easier it is to interdict. And so on. It's what economists call a virtuous cycle.

As the Jerusalem Post also points out, there is now more than ever the need to finish the fight; to not give in to the entreaties of the Left to "show good will"; and to show the Palestinian leadership and population that violence will get them nothing except more hardship and death. This is the same thing that the US needs to do with the Baathists and Sa'drists in Iraq, but has not yet brought itself to do.