Israel is kicking ass and taking names. After Hezbollah kidnapped two of their soldiers they have invaded Lebanon. They are properly treating this as an act of war, and responding accordingly. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said “If the soldiers are not returned we will turn Lebanon’s clock back 20 years.” It was about time! Appeasement never works, and trying to appease the Palestinians by giving them Gaza was the wrong approach. Maybe they knew it all along and they did it to show the world what would happen in order to get support from other countries. I doubt they will get support, but at least now they won’t get interference in the exercise of their right to self defense.

Why doesn’t appeasement work? Because once somebody initiates violence against you, there is no more room for negotiation. Negotiation assumes that both parties are willing to listen to each other, that they will use reason as their means to coming to an agreement, and that they will respect whatever they end up agreeing upon. The party initiating violence has decided that reason is not an effective way to get what he wants, has decided to stop listening, and has no intention on reaching any agreement or keeping its word. The initiator of violence thinks that he is stronger than the other party, and that he will get what he wants by superior force. What is the proper response in that situation?

The proper response is to use overwhelming force against the initial agressor. He has to understand that he is not stronger, and that by choosing to initiate force he has chosen to end up in a worse situation than what he would have, had he negotiated. This is not about payback or about getting even. This is about breaking their will, and showing them that the use of force will only lead to their destruction. Therefore, the response does not have to be proportional to the initial aggression, as some critics have suggested. If they attack a military post, it is legitimate to retaliate by nuking two of their cities as the United States did to Japan. That showed them that initiating violence was not a wise course, they stopped doing that, and now they are our best friends.

By negotiating with terrorists and giving them Gaza, Israel had given the impression that it was weak. This meant that the strategy had worked, suicide bombers had broken the will of Israel and now it was ripe for the taking. They decided to start taking, and they found out they were wrong. Israelis have shown that they can be nice when their neighbors are nice to them. Now it is time to show that they can be 1000 times more violent than those who initiate violence against them. The name of the game is not appeasement, the game to play now is deterrance.