Terrorist bombings are heinous crimes.
But in its increasing frustration with terrorism, the Israeli government is reacting to these crimes as acts of war, launching retaliatory attacks on political and military targets with gun ships. It is easily understandable that Israelis who feel besieged in isolated settlements in Arab-dominated territories do not want to let acts of terror go unanswered. But the Israeli response is based on flawed logic. When a Palestinian terrorist act triggers an Israeli military assault on a target other than the terrorists, the violence in triangulated. Instead of suppressing terrorism, it functions as pure revenge and sparks more retaliatory terrorism in further revenge.