[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by bladeofdarkness

the overall goal (as i see it) is establishing something close to what we now have with Syria and Lebanon.
I.E, a situation where the hostility is present, but the enemy understand the consequences of attacking us, and hence prefer not to do so beyond the occasional token gestures to keep up the pretense of "War against the Zionists".

The problem is that that particular approach requires maintain some kind of "strong man" in those countries, who knows not to mess with Israel or his own rule is jeopardized. That can work with a state like Syria, and is a reasonable approach. That said, if the government is brought down by a popular revolt, suddenly that approach may not work anymore. For instance what if a government with islamist tendencies arises in Egypt, that simply pours men and resources into terrorist organisations. What can Israel do then? Egypt is too big a fish to fight a prolonged battle against(unlike the 6 day war).

Likewise with something like Lebanon or the PA it doesn't work at all, as the "enemy" you're dealing with is not a regular armed force, but a mob. A mob is not dismayed by a larger force like that, because they simply switch to irregular fighting. They have nothing to lose, so they keep fighting, forever.

To have security you either need to be strong enough to repel them from attacking you, and for the enemies who aren't repelled by your greater strength, you have to eliminate their resource base. In the case of a regular opponent that's easy, you destroy their industry etc.

With a guerilla force, you need to eliminate their popular support. When their popular support is destroyed, the organisation can no longer draw new recruits, or secure the funding required for it's operations. Israel can cut the support of palestinians with direct economic measures. With the aid coming from other countries it's far more difficult, but it requires a certain amount of diplomacy.

secondly, the U.S lost against an enemy that was fighting on their home soil while U.S troops were fighting thousands of miles way from the "most powerful country on earth".
we don't have that problem.
we live right next door to the bastards.
hence, we don't have the option of running away like the U.S did, because the problems just follow us back to OUR homes. (Gaza and Lebanon both proved that).

There's an element of that, sure. But it still comes down to Israel fighitng a guerilla enemy with endless reserves.

EDIT: I agree that the settlers and palestinians deserve one another.