Anything Israel would do, would be condemned by the international community. Anybody who never heard about collective punishment, excessive force or humanitarian crisis? Let's be realistic, Israel is alone without any true ally and it should be concerned about the safety of its citizen, not about public oppinion in antisemitic countries!

You owe them nothing....they want the Jews exterminated. Why should you keep helping them in their ultimate goal of abolishing the State of Israel?

Why aren't we "masters of propaganda"? When has a country ever supplied its attackers with power, food and water? If they can import arms, they can import "humanitarian needs".

israel deserves to be assaulted by qassams since the reason there is not peace with the palestinians is because israel hasn't done enough to make it happen. right. and it is interesting that this author doesn't give any explanation as to who the palestinians are who are "not part of the game"? are they the ones who allow their children to do dirty work for the terrorists? are they the ones who celebrate handing out sweets when israelis are killed or maimed by terrorists? are they the ones who allow themselves to be used as human shields for the terrorists? clarify that and then we'll see if there is a shed of merit to this author's argument.

I think that Israel should cut their power. The launching of Qassam missiles has gone on long enough and Israel has every right to starve these people into oblivion. Lets see them fire missiles when they cant even lift their heads off their dirt pillows.

i want to live. my family doesnt deserve to die so that we can give them free water and electricity.

Mr Elad is suggesting a military response, out of fear of the world reaction. Meanwhile, Livni et al, are too scared to take military action for the same reasons. If foreign media get invovled, then its a job for israeli hasbara, but at the monent, they care not about qassams, or Shalit. A country has to defend its citizens, otherwise the citizens will lose faith in the establishment.

Start to bombard them day and night. Arm the Israeli citizens and then let the world send in their chocolate soldiers. Make sure each one has his or her own body bag.

The writer pushes for a military response to spare the "innocent civilians". But consider last year's conflicts. The world *still* slammed Israel, even when it responded to a clear act of aggression. Israel had little response to the professional liars of Hamas and Hezbullah because Israeli hazbara is still played by amateurs. Recall that Peres disbanded the information office in the Foreign Ministry. But at the very least Israel should be capable of calling its opponents on their lies, past and present. Why was it more often conservative bloggers that discredited the doctored photos, the "missile attacks on ambulances" fables, the "poison gas" lies? Where were Israeli professionals? Why will Israel not stand with French journalist Philippe Karsenty over the al-Dura libel? As to the power issue, Israel should try a little finesse. Announce that after so many months Israel will cease providing power to Gaza. That'll give them plenty of time to make other arrangements. In the meantime, power cuts will follow, measure for measure, attacks on Israel. Make sure everyone knows what the "rules" are in advance. So many hours per attack. The EU will surely scream bloody murder. Remind them the power will be back on in so many hours provided there are no further attacks. If "tragedies" follow, put it where it belongs, on the de facto authority in Gaza.

why should Israel supply them with electricity, water, telephone service? payment is kassams, killings and further threats of killings. In a war of survival, why be considerate of the other side. I am sure they won't be so considerate should the tables be reversed. let's see how the EU will act in 10 years when they have 30-40 % muslim population (including the fundamentalists)

Has he already been forgotten? Gazans could get tremendous propaganda value out of releasing him. Otherwise a reduction in utilities is their problem.

Although not related to this article, can anyone tell me the status of the UK academic boycott? I haven't seen anything about it in over a month. Shouldn't they have voted by now?

Why it bombed Gaza's power supply last year (a war crime) and has a stranglehold over its inhabitants. They also leave their explosive rubbish there (in Lebanon too), shot and killed children flying kites, shot millions of tank shells, destoyed agricultural land and more. Generous indeed are you Israel.

Like all writes of this stripe he of course is against cutting the power/water/phone to the arabs. If this was cut how would they be able to operate their machines and produce rockets? How could they communicate and coordinate their attacks? And how would they have the strength to carry out these attacks? If these essentials were cut the arabs might have to focus on survival in Gaza...there might even be a mass movement out of Gaza (I wonder how lovingly the Egyptians would treat them)....but more to the point the end of attacks on Israel would undermine the reasons this and other lefties would have to give more to the arabs and have Israel withdraw. Israel might actually stop the process of collapsing in on itself and these leftists would actually have to live in a state that might not actually cease to exist. Then what would they do? Supplying the arabs with the means to attack Israel is essential to the left wing agenda...so of course you should not cut off the power/water/telephone/food/etc.

Do not return Golan Height to Syria. Reclaim all Gaza. And relocate all its residents to Golan Height.

the first is about the palastinian socioty there is starvation .bad health death from the ocupation . and the world know this very well ,, the second truth is or will be ,,when the israel will asked for the foringher troops to keep its security // not to fight the terror // why america started to be out of iraq .. for its security .. but sure israil soldiers can not be out of israel but need security ,,the palastinians can not be out of palastin .and need security .. if the world can not obey palastinian complains ,,they will not ignore the israili complains when it is a true complain ,not false one as it is today

Why does anyone think that a lack of electricity or a few dead Arabs matter to Fatah, Hamas or anyone but Israel? If the Arabs saw new Jewish homes being built and knew they homes never be destroyed, the attacks would cease and there would be peace.

Okay, but don't you or any Israeli say "never again" again.

while anyone can appreciate the humanity of this article's author, the author also seems to be ignoring the fact that there is a war on. in war, either you win, or lose, or stalemate. right now, israel is choosing to stay in a stalemate. that is foolish. pressuring the palestinian public by cutting off their power is a fantastic idea. let them pressure their own murderers to stop their chaos and bring about a normal culture, and thus, build the necessary foundations for a real country. let them beg for peace. and definitely cut off electric power to gaza whenever we send in troops to take out "terror infrastructure". Hear Me O Israel ... Go Forth And Kick The Asses of Thine Enemies ... Or Else Thine Own Ass Shall Be Hurting!

This is the only way other than a full blown invasion and a large buffer zone you are going to get quite on the Border. Israel has no moral or legal reason to give Gaza Power or indeed Water. http://ralphsrant1.blogspot.com/

Worried about what the world will think of Israel if you cut the electricity? Think about what everyone isthinking about Israel now...NO SELF RES{PECT , NO HONOR, NO COURAGE, NO BRAINS. To use an old expression." You can spit oin them and they'll call it rain>" ..Why not cut electricy to 6 Hrs per day? Oh, forget ....Just surrender.

Idiotic Analysis by this scribbler. Cut off their electric power. Their water. Their food, their schools. ALL medical services. Declare heavily populated areas as free fire zones, AND send randomly selected high explosive missile fire into those free fire zones. Target ALL elected, appointed or self selected political personalities within the Pal Admin as enemies to the survival of the Israel State and place a Warrant/Fatwa for their sorry, boney butts to be shot on sight. And then,..... I would adopt a REALLY get tough approach.

it is part of a real siege plan. The author offers the reasons why simply cutting the power won't result in stopping the rockets. Cutting the power should be used as part of a wider plan to force Hamas to give in to two demands: stop the rockets and return Shalit. The siege needs to include military attacks, attempts to humiliate the Hamas rulers, and cutting the power for part of the time. This will not be easy and the Gazans will resist. The objective is to break their will to resist, not kill them all. If the govt isn't willing to keep this up for an extended time period then they shouldn't start it.

The mere existence of Israel has the international community frothing at the mouth. What troops are going to come in? NATO is all tied up in Afghanistan, Europe can't even defend itself and keep up its UN and NATO commitments. The Arabs certainly aren't going to actually do anything to alleviate Palestinian suffering. They like to have them suffering. Besides, shutting the power off for two hours (for example) per Kassam won't kill anyone but it might make the civilians less cooperative with their democratically elected terrorist government.

He "researches Palestinian society," but he never mentions Islam. He's called an "expert." So, a simple question: does this guy Elad have a desired endpoint in mind? A goal? If so, what is it? I think his desired endpoint is "peace." My own desired endpoint is "no Arabs in Yesha." Now, if you like my endpoint, you want to make the "Pals" utterly miserable, hopeless, and terrified of dying at any point, so that they leave. To rub salt in their wounds, you want to put Jewish families all over the place and decimate Arab outposts when they are even indirectly involved in attacking Jewish Yesha communities. Elad, you see, doesn't understand that most "Palestinians" are Jew-haters through and through. In fact, most Muslims probably are as well. As long as "Pals" are on Jewish land, they will supply fake news stories and made the Jewish state look bad. Unload your Pals quickly, and you'll find "the world" has a very short memory, especially when money is to be gained. Fiddling around with "terrorist infrastructure" leaves the terrorists in place, as the "Palestinian people" are the terrorist infrastructure.

I'd recommend something like Dresden, if you asked me. Or maybe Hiroshima. When one deals with totalitarians, only complete destruction and humiliation seem to work. In addition, any political force using "asymmetric war" is almost sure to violate every law of war; such a force should not be treated in accordance with the laws of war. Jewish life is more important than Muslim life to this Jew. And civilization is more important than barbarism. No pity for one who is both a barbarian and a non-Jew.

Schmuel, you have the same name as I and that's where similarity ends. If we could save one Jewish life by cutting electricity it would be worth it. The hell with what the world thinks. What would you think if the life was that of your wife or child.