No Replacement For Displacement

William Tecumseh Dershowitz

I don't know how I missed this--the Jpost is one of my daily reads. In this article, which I got the link from NRO, Alan Dershowitz talks about waging economic warfare towards the Palestinians if they continue to engage in terrorism. He writes:

Here is my proposal. Israel should announce an immediate unilateral cessation in retaliation against terrorist attacks. This moratorium would be in effect for a short period, say four or five days, to give the Palestinian leadership an opportunity to respond to the new policy. It would also make it clear to the world that Israel is taking an important step in ending what has become a cycle of violence.

Following the end of the moratorium, Israel would institute the following new policy if Palestinian terrorism were to resume. It will announce precisely what it will do in response to the next act of terrorism. For example, it could announce the first act of terrorism following the moratorium will result in the destruction of a small village which has been used as a base for terrorist operations. The residents would be given 24 hours to leave, and then troops will come in and bulldoze all of the buildings.

The response will be automatic. The order will have been given in advance of the terrorist attacks and there will be no discretion. The point is to make the automatic destruction of the village the fault of the Palestinian terrorists who had advance warnings of the specific consequences of their action. The soldiers would simply be acting as the means for carrying out a previously announced policy of retaliation against a designated target.

Further acts of terrorism would trigger further destruction of specifically named locations. The "waiting list" targets would be made public and circulated throughout the Palestinian-controlled areas.

If this automatic policy of destroying targets announced in advance is carried out with the full support of the entire government, including those who are committed to a resumption of the peace process, a clear message will be sent to the Palestinian people: Every time terrorists blow themselves up and kill civilians, they are also blowing up one of their own villages.

Over time, the Palestinian residents of these villages will place the blame where it should be placed: directly on the Palestinian terrorists who engaged in terrorism against Israel with full knowledge the consequence would be the destruction of their homes. Those villagers whose homes were coming up on the list would have an incentive to pressure the terrorists to desist.

Since the Atrocity, Alan Dershowitz has become one of the most unlikeliest hawks I've seen. His support for the use of torture, and general hawkishness is a wild departure from his normal persona of a left wing lawyer. In any event, I think he is focusing on the wrong place. If you want to eliminate terrorists, go after the backers. Go after Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi. Make them pay the economic price for supporting the terrorists..

Posted by John Bono at November 23, 2002 05:34 PM | TrackBack