Don't waste your military resources. Turn off the lights and the water, let the Gazans know what will turn both of them back on and then wait. They can't do without those Lion King cartoons for too long. Just be careful of that Hamas Naval force, though.

It's surprising how effective doing (as well as providing) nothing at all can be. Let the siege of Hamas begin! When the citizens of Gaza know why they're drinking their own urine to stay alive, maybe then they'll finally wake up to the fact that the only people they can blame for their situation are themselves.

Clearly, the only option is the one where we will win and destroy this hamas entity. Completely destroy it and kill as many enimies as possible. If we win then we will be supported by everyone except pro-Arab groups like "peace now", Hizbullah, saudi hunta, and Syria. We must do it now, not next week, and we shouldn't think about the future of Olmert and the wealth of his family.

Find the right lever and one can move a mountain. A lack of clean water and enough of sitting in the dark will doubtless alter the behavior of the most relentless ding-dong Islamic warrior.

the only thing we can do with the country the way it is now is to appease hamas. Stop all defensive actions in both west bank and gaza, evacuate sderot ala gush katif. Make a buffer zone around gaza so they cant reach anyone and hope they will get frustrated of trying. It may sound extreme this country today has absolutely no will to fight and doesnt want to be victorious, so we must surrender were we can.

allow serdot civilians to fire quasams back at the gaza stip. they tell Hamas, it not us :)

How about an automatic Patriot type system that fires a barrage of rockets at any Kassam fired towards Israel. Never mind the accuracy. Just make sure that if they miss their target, they come down somewhere in Gaza rather than Israel. No soldiers or technicians to man the Patriots. Just the radar and a computer. At least that way they know that if they let off a Kassam, a barrage of defensive rockets would be fired to intercept. But watch out, if they miss, a Patriot missile might paying a visit to Gaza to somewhere near you!

It is true to say that only a large-scale offensive has the theoritical potential of destroying Hamas and ending Qassams fire. The only problem it that it won't work. To bring down both the Qassam rockets and Hamas power to 0, the IDF will have to literaly kill thousands of Palestinians, inlcuding thousands of civilians, and destroy pretty much all standing structures in Gaza. Nobody can really imagine the IDF going through with such an operation for longer than a few weeks, well before any objective is attained. On the other hand, collective punishment will primarily affect the weaker persons in the Palestinian society, and certainly fuel anger at Israel - if it can be higher than now. Moreover, should these punishments lead to significative deaths among the Palestinians, Israel will find itself under unbearable pressure from the International Community to end it, especially from the US, Israel's only ally.

No reason we should help our enemies who want us dead. http://ralphsrant1.blogspot.com/

ordered this operation. Shutting off the lights and water won't stop the rockets. Hamas doesn't care about starvation and death of Palestinians that much.

One of Israel's great strengths is its Deterrence. If Deterrence is eroded due to inaction, it would further weaken Israel and embolden its enemies to enhance their attacks on her. Hence, Decisive Action must be executed to reinforce her Deterrence. Contrary to the apprehension of some weak leaders, Israel's decisive action against external attacks will be applauded by the Free World. Should there be craps coming from Antisemites and Islamist-Jihadists in the aftermath of Israel's action, Israel can tell them go to Hell. In Bruce Lee's Movie called "The Big Boss," there was a scene where he was surrounded by a gang of knife-welding thugs. They threatened, slapped and punched him. He stood his ground until they ripped off his neckless which symbolized a promise of good behavior to his uncle. Then with lightning punches and kicks, he knocked and flattened all the thugs to the ground. The world applauded him. His Deterrence was reinforced. The thugs dared not provoke and gang up on him. again. It is time for strong leadership. It is time for Decisive Action. It is time to preempt the Iranian and Wahhabhist fanatics and thugs operating and attacking Israel from Gaza. The Free World will applaud Israel for defending herself against the unrelenting rocket attacks on her by the Iranian and Wahhabhist thugs and tentacles surrounding her.

Yes, again, the dream of a total war. But have we not heard that before?

From where within Gaza are rockets being fired? Could we see a map of lauch sites? If the launch sites are within 5 miles of Gaza's northern or western borders....then cut off electricity and water to this area, bull doze/flatten so can be monitored (set up unmanned monitoring towers inside the area to supplement watchtowers in Israel), prohibit anybody from entering area. If then longer range rockets are used, move the line of habitation. Israel thus avoids occupying Gaza (which is always a PR blunder), and also avoids ongoing civilian casulties.

Cut off the strip from everything Israel now provides - airdrop leaflets and broadcast TV and radio announcements (before and during), to make sure that everyone in Gaza and the rest of the world know it's because of Hamas. Then small psyops to help stir up the non-Hamas residents against their "brethren." I also like the idea of automated Patriots set up for counter-battery fire. Let them fight it out among themselves, hopefully they'll clean the place out enough to move displaced settlers back in!

#7 You are so right. Why isn't this option brought up more often? The Israeli's should announce to the world...from this date forward the pali's fire one rocket at israel we will fire three rockets back at them...they fire three rockets at israel we fire nine rockets back at them this is after israel turns out the lights in gaza of course. It all seems so obvious. Then see how quickly the pali's move against anyone making or firing a qassam into israel. Bonus...no risk to the idf.

What a price this world and the native Palestinian population of Israel and the occupied territories pay for Israel's existence. This is a country that does not know the meaning of decency or justice. Harry Katz