WhiteLion wrote...
If you do more research on the practices of HAMAS, you will find that indoctrination may not play as big a role as you claim. Sure, they try, but they also offer payment to their soldiers, especially suicide bombers, whose families receive pretty significant chunks of money and support. If you are starving and living in a hellish warzone, you might decide that it is worth it to become a terrorist for the money, even if you are apathetic to the cause. Maybe you die, but then your family might be able to survive and get a better life.
If HAMAS's indoctrination program is as powerful as you say, then they shouldn't need to spend money recruiting and paying their terrorists. Every child should be jumping for joy at the thought of blowing up infidels, and HAMAS should be spending the money on more weapons or something. Clearly, HAMAS realizes that these economic incentives are necessary to get the number of pawns and foot soldiers they need. This is an area where HAMAS is vulnerable, and successfully attacking this weakness would be more effective than years of Israeli offensives.
You are absolutely right that simply throwing large amounts of money or consumable supplies directly at local or national governments is a waste, because of corruption and the government being run by either terrorists or groups that find it in their interest for terrorist activity to continue. How then does one attack this vulnerability successfully? Invest in infrastructure, schools, hospitals, affordable housing, and so forth in Palestine. This both creates benefits useful to the populace that HAMAS cannot easily or usefully commandeer, and has the potential to create employment for the population. What can HAMAS do? Blow up the roads, hospitals, and houses built for their own populace? It puts them in a difficult spot. If they do nothing, then the peoples' lives are bettered and the economic incentives to become terrorists are less appealing. If they destroy the improvements, then they will hurt their local support. I know I wouldn't support a group of self proclaimed "freedom fighters" if they had blown up my local hospital. The best they can do is try to kill the aid workers to intimidate the countries supplying aid to pull out, which is what Al-Qaeda has been doing in Iraq.
So, my strategy for Israel would be to use its military forces sparingly, with precision, defensively, and more patiently while working with the UN to improve infrastructure and services as explained above. It's a long term strategy that requires patience, and doesn't satiate the immediate thirst by some for retributive justice. But unlike years of terrorism and counter-terrorism, I think it could actually yield results.
Fiery, I explained by proposal to you, so I am interested to hear how you think Israel and the UN/NATO/the West should proceed. I stated in my previous post the reasons which make me think that simply crushing Palestine militarily would not be effective(short of a theocide/genocide scenario involving killing basically everyone outside Israel in the middle east that will never happen). Do you think otherwise? If not, what should be done?
You have an interesting position. I was aware of the monetary "persuasions" that Hamas has used in the past but, I thought of it as a minor detail and that the indoctrination was the main cause. The whole "Zionism/invasion of the west" etc etc (you get the idea) was programming the youth to volunteer for suicide bombings.
One area I think is a concern is even with investing in the infrastructure I think Hamas will proclaim the tired old argument of "Zionism,etc,etc" as "they are trying to invade Palestine" kind of mentality thus in the eyes of the Palestinian people would justify the destruction of hospitals and other infrastructure that Israel and the rest of the world are trying to give the people. We ARE talking about a group that won it's elections based on the promise to wipe Israel off the earth.
The military applications become a gray area. As "surgical strikes" are almost impossible. It's not like civilized countries that have their military applications separate from residential areas. The U.S. Military doesn't use Centennial Olympic Park as a Training camp. So surgical strikes are better when fighting a country like that. Instead of a "country" that intertwines the civilian and military buildings. Not to mentioned the warehousing of weapons, ammunition,etc in civilian buildings. Which basically leaves out bombings since any strike immediately has Israel being damned in the eyes of the world when they are only trying to protect their people.
As for the actions the rest of the world should take. I believe in a DMZ between Israel and the Palestinian territories. While using peacekeeping forces (non-U.S. or Israeli) to police the Palestinian territories. While doing your suggesting in investing in the infrastructure (the peacekeeps would be tasked to safe guard these projects) It's clear that if Hamas stopped it's attacks then Israel will stop since Israel has only retaliated over the years instead of being the aggressor.