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Source: https://www.jns.org/in-praise-of-targeted-killings-of-terrorists/
In Praise of Targeted Killings of Terrorists
(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - It's been a bad week for terrorists, with the deaths of Hizbullah chief of staff Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran. These two men have rivers of blood on their hands. The goals of the organizations they lead are to destroy Israel and accomplish the genocide of its people. Headlines about their deaths in America's leading newspapers all emphasized the potential negative repercussions. No matter how many terrorists the Israelis kill, there always seems to be more to take their place. Instead of finding more creative and ingenious ways of killing people, Israelis are told they must stop shooting and find common ground with their foes - or at least stop actions that only inspire more outraged Palestinians, Lebanese and Iranians to become terrorists. That sounds reasonable to Western minds, as well as to Israelis who prefer magical thinking about their nation's security dilemmas to confronting reality. But it is profoundly mistaken because the members of Hamas and Hizbullah aren't interested in peace on any terms with Israel. Targeted killings of leaders of terrorist groups make sense because that is what you do in a war against existential foes. It's true that even the most important of these leaders can, at least in theory, be replaced. Still, disrupting their activities and causing them to operate with far more caution may well save the lives of innocents that might have been lost if the killers were able to go about their business unmolested. For two millennia, Jews were killed with impunity by foes wherever they lived in the world. The rebirth of Israel means that Jews had attained the means of self-defense and the ability to ensure that those who shed Jewish blood would not go unpunished. Murderers like Shukr and Haniyeh must be pursued because the goal of Israel in this conflict should be to win it, rather than to merely survive another day in the vain hope that gentle reason, international mediation or concessions by Jerusalem will achieve peace. The only way out of the impasse isn't by pressuring Israel, which only empowers the terrorists and gives them the ability to kill more Jews. It is only by eradicating the terrorists wherever they can be found that Palestinians will be forced to conclude that their century-old war against Israel cannot succeed and that they must try something else.