re: #37 sliv_the_eli

In a sane world, the metric for success would be no rockets, ever.

In a sane world, there would be no rockets.

In an ideal world, where Israel is not held to a standard that no other country would be held to, the metric for success is like the definition of the end point of a parabola — as close to zero for as long a period of time as possible.

Wait, your ideal world still has Israel and Palestine fighting?

In a practical world, the metric for success would be the same as the metric for success by a police force with respect to the murder rate — you know it will happen occasionally despite the best efforts of all involved, and that those in charge will search for and punish the occasional perp when it happens.

Comparing this to a police action is very dumb. Military actions cause plenty of civilian casualties. This is basically a non-response otherwise— it’s saying there isn’t a metric for success, it’ll just happen and every once in awhile Israel will bomb them back.

In an ideal world, where Israel is not held to a standard that no other country would be held to, the metric for success is like the definition of the end point of a parabola — as close to zero for as long a period of time as possible.

In a practical world, the metric for success would be the same as the metric for success by a police force with respect to the murder rate — you know it will happen occasionally despite the best efforts of all involved, and that those in charge will search for and punish the occasional perp when it happens.

Unfortunately, the world remains to too great a degree an antisemitic one, which means that there will be no success, only the elimination by Israel of some of its enemies’ most destructive weapons before they can be used and a material reduction of the firing of missiles to the “merely sporadic”.

And does this particular military action place the final goal of reducing antisemitism farther away or closer?

We aren’t any closer. That isn’t Israel’s fault, since the Arab world uses the Palestinians as their proxy, inflame the situation, and Hamas tends to kill those who would be conciliatory with Israel, but Israel still needs to believe in a future of peaceful coexistence. I really feel that a lot of those on the Israeli right have truly given up on that— and it is not an option, to give up.