For the record, and sarcasm aside, Israel has decided not to respond in the past. It went largely unnoticed at the time.
When?
The recent barrage of Kassam rockets fired at Israel from Gaza over the past few weeks initially went without retaliation: [q]In the last two weeks, the IDF refrained from responding to Qassam fire from Gaza and also avoided resorting to artillery fire at rocket launching sites. However, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Thursday Hamas was involved in at least two Qassam rocket attacks in the past week along with Fatah and Islamic Jihad.[/q]
From:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3210491,00.htmlRemember back in 2001, the "Tenet Plan"?
Yeah:
[q] Below is a summary of both sides' implementation of the Tenet Plan:
Both parties will work to stabilize the security environmentIsrael
* Israel refrained from responding to almost all of the more than 150 Palestinian attacks
* IDF operates under strict rules of engagement and has only responded to PA aggression
Palestinian Authority
* Palestinians planted four large bombs in major cities- one containing phosphorous, a chemical that causes severe burns [/q]
The list of how each side implemented the Tenet Plan goes on beyond that in the article, of course.
Another example, back in 2002 (quoted paragraphs 7-8):
[q]As noted, since the establishment of this government and since we adopted the Mitchell and then the Tenet reports, all possible attempts have been made on our part to calm the situation. To remind you, there was a unilateral cease-fire which ended after ten days with the attack at the Dolphinarium; a meeting between the Foreign Minister and Yasser Arafat at Dahaniya in an attempt to give extra content to the Tenet report in terms of a timetable; we adopted every suggestion made by General Zinni since his arrival in Israel.
Moving ahead to recent events, we held back and refrained from responding to the terrorist attack which took place in Jerusalem a few days before the Seder night, with the aim of trying to enable General Zinni to succeed in his mission, in the understanding that the primary interest is to achieve quiet in the region and that this is a common interest of Israel, the USA and the international community. As I said earlier, it is also a common interest for other countries in the region. It is a common interest of the Palestinian nation, too, although unfortunately not of its leader, Yasser Arafat, who is acting in a completely different way.[/q]
Now I'm not saying that Israel had made it any sort of policy not to resepond to attacks on her citizens. To do so would be suicide. But there have been definite times when we have specifically not responded to provocation, in the hope that perhaps we could break the cycle of violence. It never worked.
Just like the Gaza pullout. Instead of continuing the never-ending battle in that war-torn area, Sharon decided to finally disengage and retreat. Notice that those are both heavily
military terms. We retreated. We awarded the Palestinian's use of terrorism. But forget about the message it sent to terrorists worldwide for the moment. We retreated -
disengaged.
What was their response?
Kassams on a near-daily basis for the past number of weeks. A suicide bombing at a falafel stand in Tel-Aviv that killed 9... and what is Israel's response?
Restraint. Let's see what happens
this time, eh? I'm not optimistic.
