Widespread panic and confusion = peace and understanding

At last, Israel is moving to end the violence once and for all. Just one final push is necessary, a few hundred must die then the promised land will awaken to a new era of peace and prosperity. It's very clear you see. On the one hand you have militants, operatives and terrorists, on the other you have soldiers, security forces and police. The deaths of the first group of people can be filed under "incidental casualties in the pursuit of self-defense" while those of the latter are "murderous provocations demanding swift retaliation." When you kill enough of the first group, eventually those left alive will see the error of their perspective, lay down their arms and immediately pick up hammers and shovels. "It's time to rebuild our society," the Palestinians will say, "Oh, the time that's been wasted in violence and revenge! But we've finally learned our lesson, best to accept the superiority of the other side's weapons."

It's the precision of the Israelis' cutting-edge weapons you see. Their young F-16 pilots can fire their rockets with absolute faith that only a very specific and deserving target will be affected, much like a pair of tweezers zeroing in on a single wayward nose hair. Mostly militants and terrorists will be killed, that you can guarantee. More importantly though, the main reason for the ongoing bombardment of Gaza is to cripple Hamas' rocket-launching capabilities, which have been on display in recent weeks since breaking a ceasefire. Hamas has been lobbing rockets over the last few weeks, goading their diminutive gigantic neighbor to act, and lo and behold, Israel's super-tough, seen-everything, world-weary old men have surmised the situation and called for war. Once Israel destroys these rocket launchers, the angry young men who press their buttons will accept their defeat and move on to other pursuits. And Israel will accomplish this quickly, the IDF holds itself to an inimitable standard. As one Israeli commentator puts it, "If the fighting is awe-inspiring and quick, we are in the presence of genius. If it results in a fiasco, we stand before idiocy, if not criminality."

Since when did monumental violence and the adjectival phrase "awe-inspiring" go together? I've heard of awe-inspiring sunsets and Zeppelin albums, but where did the idea of "shocking and awing" people into submission come from? Is this a new idea? Does it stem from the blitzkrieg offensives of WWII? It seems more fantasy than anything else, indeed, the pioneering ferocity of Germany eventually culminated in the relentless bombardment of its own towns and cities. In any case, whatever is shocking and awe-inspiring about experiencing extreme violence, it seems to last only so long. Inevitably, there are a few "bad guys" who, overcoming their awe, survive to go on to help raise a fresh new crop of bitter and angry young men. Israel's genius attack on Hamas will just as likely fan the flames of hatred and dogma, already in abundance in Palestine, as it will somehow amaze these hopeless young Palestinians into cowering in a corner. Violent males beget violent males; it's a perpetual motion machine.