Warnings of the possibility for such attacks were also issued by the security forces. The worsening cycle of violence is accompanied by increasingly hostile rhetoric on both sides, fanning hatred and encouraging violent activities whose destructive results are becoming increasingly evident. Israel is facing political and diplomatic pressures, regional and international, of the type it has experienced during previous confrontations. During his visit to the United States last week, Prime Minister Ehud Barak spoke in favor of a policy of restraint. He noted that a strategy of controlled reaction and responsibility is much more difficult than a policy of punishment and retaliation.
Restraint is indeed necessary in order to prevent further deterioration.
But it seems that political pressures, both from the settlers and the right-wing parties, and from members of the coalition and ministers, are leaving their mark. The Israel Defense Forces is being authorized to step up the ferocity of its response and the Palestinians are quick to reciprocate in kind. The violent history of the Middle East teaches us that killing leads to more killing and that the madness of death and destruction only becomes more difficult to control. History also teaches that ostentatious acts of killing and destruction only encourage resistance in those already under attack. The heavy punishment of Beirut by the IDF in 1983 did not accelerate the diplomatic process, but delayed it by nearly a decade.