The payoff from the use of force in the struggle between Israel and the Palestinians is evident. It was only after the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s that Israel recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization and started to consider a two-state solution, and after the second – and very bloody – uprising that it left Gaza in 2005. Meanwhile for many Israelis, the past decade looks like a model of the primacy of military action over diplomacy. Through relentless commando operations and numerous checkpoints, the Israeli Army ended suicide bombings and other terrorist acts from the West Bank; since its 2006 war with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, widely dismissed as a failure at the time, the group has not fired one rocket at Israel; and Israel’s operation against Gaza last December has greatly curtailed years of Hamas rocket fire, returning a semblance of normality to the Israeli south. Two years ago, Israeli fighter planes destroyed what Israel and the United States say was a budding Syrian nuclear reactor; and last year in Syria, Israeli agents assassinated Imad Mugniyah, the top military operative for Hezbollah and a crucial link to its Iranian sponsors, a severe blow to both Hezbollah and Iran. Diplomatic efforts, whether the Oslo peace talks of the 1990s or the Turkish-mediated negotiations with Syria last year have, by contrast, produced little.
Those diplomatic efforts go beyond merely “producing little.” Olso, Wye River, and Camp David II all served as opportunities for terror groups to grab a quick breather from decimating Israeli military action. In each instance, Palestinian terror networks regrouped and reattacked, forcing further Israeli responses. Since Arafat’s Second Intafada was disrupted by efficient Israeli offensives (and a highly effective West Bank security barrier), Israel has been internally quiet and largely free from terror attacks within her borders. One wonders if another Arab-Israeli Peace Summit would allow Hamas to undo all of the IDF’s security gains, just like Arafat did throughout the 1990s.
