Ruthlessness

The efforts to effect the release of the kidnapped Israeli corporal Shalit demonstrate one aspect of the war that is being waged against Israel (and indeed against the West): As long as Israel does not recognize that it is in a war for its very survival, it will continue to suffer from the murderous attacks of the Islamic psychopaths. And here's why:

If a war is fought for land gains, or economic motives, then between all parties involved there is always the realization that sooner or later, they're going to have to live with each other. Even if one side completely conquers the other, this fact will lead the victors to fight a "limited" war, but it will do the same to the defenders: They know that whatever happens, the worst than can happen is a loss of sovereignty. And no matter how bad this may seem, it is not sufficient to cause many people to elect an all-out, no-holds barred type of warfare. The type of warfare where women and children are not taken into consideration, even if they are not a specific target. The type of warfare where collective punishment is the norm. The type of warfare where no weapons are taboo, no methods off-limits and no life is sacred.

If a war is fought between parties who have both - or all - signed treaties intended to protect civilians, such as the Fourth Geneva Convention, and all parties adhere by those treates (which automatically rules out a war of genocide, like the one the 'Palestinians' are fighting against the Jews). This type of war does not call for all-out war. One example of how a war like this should be fought is the Israeli incursion into Jenin, the spawning place of 'Palestinian' terrorists. In a no-holds barred war, Jenin would simply have been bombed, bombed into oblivion, bombed with High-Explosives, napalm, fragmentation, etc, afterwards to be sprinkeled with mines of various types. This would have taken care of just about every terrorist, and everyone supporting terrorists, everyone aspiring to be a terrorist, and everyone involved in reproducing terrorists.

It would also have killed large numbers of people not - or not directly - involved in the war against Israel.

This is not what Israel did. Israel instead went into Jenin, on foot, and killed 57 'Palestininans', the vast majority of which were holding firearms as they were sent to meet Allah. During this operation, 25 Israeli soldiers also died. This is 25 more than would have died, had Jenin been wiped off the face of the planet by carpet-bombing.

Now the IDF is looking for a kidnapped soldier, and despite all the blustering, they're still trying "surgical" methods to try and pressure the Arabs into releasing the kidnapping victim, who, if still alive, is most likely hidden among humans shields, consisting of Arabs not directly involved in the confrontation. These human shields are most often women and children, and the Arabs assume (and are most often proven right in doing so) that the IDF will not risk brute force when there is a real risk of human collateral damage. Wether this fear is caused by the knowledge of global outrage over Arab civilian deaths caused by the IDF, or by a moral inhibition to be responsible for these deaths, or both, is irrelevant. The fact is it causes Israel to act ineffectively. It reinforces the Arab belief that they can get away with murder (literally) as long as they find a place to hide afterwards that the IDF is afraid of destroying.

This is wrong.

In the meantime, it's been nearly a year since Israel left Gaza to the barbarians. A year in which between one and two thousand rockets were fired from Gaza, at Israel. Ashkelon is being it on a daily basis, and where Sderot (which has been under rocket attack without pause for many years now) seemed to warrant no attention whatsoever, this major seaside town seems to be worthy of some IF protection. This is not new by the way, go here for some recent history.
The IDF has a second reason for re-entering Gaza now: Make the rocket attacks stop.

So Gaza is 100% Judenrein. And the only thing this seems to mean to the Arabs is, they are now completely unhindered in their attempts to put the first Arab on the moon, and too bad all their prototypes fall in Israeli gardens all the time.
Of course Abu Mazen (aka Mahmoud Abbas) is unable to stop the rocket attacks.
Of course the new Hamas Prime terrorist Minister is unable to stop the rocket attacks.

It now turns out the IDF is also unable to stop the rocket attacks. Because they can only do it by targeting the actual people who do the launching, or at best the houses where the rockets are built, and the people who build them.

This is wrong.

There is no way for Israel to aggrevate the situation. Let me state this again:

THERE IS NO WAY FOR ISRAEL TO AGGREVATE THE SITUATION.

Since the further kidnapping of Israeli soldiers (this time by Islamic terrorists on the Northern border of Israel), it is becoming ever more clear that there is concerted escalation going on in the 58-year old conflict against Israel. It is war. A war led by Iran, fought by proxy, letting others do the killing and dying for them (at the moment). The timing of Ahmedinejad's latest call to wipe out Israel (which was immediately followed by the Arab attacks from Gaza against territory that no one disputes belongs to Israel) was no coincidence. Iran has a purpose and a strategy. They just are not apparent to us right now, but it shouldn't be too long before we all get to see what Allah's prime ideologue has in store for the Jews.

The advantages of waging unrestrained war against the Arabs and Iranians currently attacking Israel should be clear: The total destruction of any piece of equipment (other than small pieces of brick) that can be used to hurt or kill Jews will be destroyed. Infrastructure used to transport terrorists and their equipment will be destroyed.
Leaders and financiers of terrorists will be killed.

Israel will have peace again for years, perhaps as much as a decade. Who knows, if the Arabs are hurt bad enough, they may want to do what Jordan and Egypt did.

The disadvantages of total warfare are not clear to me. I can't think of any at all, unless someone wants to involve morals in this conflict. I am done with that discussion, so I will just remind people of Dresden and Hiroshima. After a party starts a war, the gloves come off. If those parties subsequently violate every moral code in the book (as Germany and Japan did), no retribution is too severe.

And unlike the Allies in WW2, Israel is not just in a territorial war. Israel is defending herself against an enemy with genocide as its declared goal, an enemy that is fighting this war without any restraints whatsoever.

It is time, way past time, that Israel did the same. It is time to be truly ruthless.