Sorry for the delay. I'll try to respond to everyone in order. I apologize if I inadvertently omitted anyone.
HECKLER - (You troublemaker)
How will Israel survive? By doing whatever needs to be done.
MORTICIAN - (To continue your metaphor) By recognizing that the only way to prevent cancer from recurring is to completely eradicate it.
NYDRAGON - 4 pages of posts just in the last of 10 or more threads on this topic, (about 3 pages past when it should have been locked) and you're upset you didn't have your say? Fortunately Sharon is not a Rabin. Rabin was at best a traitor to the Israelis. Sharon is much better but he is nowhere near extreme enough. The only Israeli politician with a clue what to do was Meir Kahane, but the Arabs assassinated him, his wife, his kids, and his grandkids. (These were all separate incidents except for one son and daughter in law.) Kahane knew that when your enemy has vowed to destroy you, it is your moral imperative to destroy him before he does so. Fortunately, the Kach party is growing very strong in Israel now, as more people wake up.
HECKLER - Yep I'm very emotional about this topic.
YERDADDY - Surprise, surprise, attack me on this issue, and I'll fight back. Shocked? Well you're just like the world, which would much rather have had Jews present their throat to all their adversaries. Israel has cared about world opinion for far too long. They'll be condemned no matter what they do. So do whatever is necessary. Another complaint about locking a thread after 4 pages and 10 other threads with nothing new said. Perhaps it's another illustration on how differently we view reality.
HIPPIE - You wrote, "we've created an odd little model of the situation we're trying to discuss, haven't we?" Well said.
CRAIG - I agree, but it's not a matter of physical filth, it's their hatred in their hearts and their religious teachings that require jihad like their mad prophet Mohamed. If the Egyptians and Jordanians would not seek Israel's destruction, Israel would have no reason to destroy them.
NYDRAGON - I disagree that Israel will magically always around forever. They will only be around if they defend themselves against the numerically superior nations that want to crush them. They only outnumber Israel by about 500 to 1.
DCREED - The Arabs have never been interested in land for peace it has been demonstrated time and time again. They will not be happy until Israel is destroyed. And America. And the rest of the non-Muslim world.
COWBOYJOKA - As the only superpower in the world we have a moral imperative to intervene and fight on the side of rightness. Aside from that, the Arab animosity isn't just limited to Israel. It's anti-American, and anti non-Muslim. It is in our self interest to intervene and wipe evil from the world, so it doesn't come and bite us on our asses.
DCREED - Exactly. The world is too small for things to be "someone else's problem."
NYDRAGON - Arafat has pledged to destroy Israel. He has rejected land for peace. He actively sponsors terrorist groups and activities. You call him a moderate? The horror is that perhaps in comparison to the typical Arab man and women on the street he is. Sharon is a general, who is too cowed by world opinion to do what is needed. Political solutions have failed utterly and unlike what you may have heard when you were little, it takes one side to fight. Israel's choice is to be fought and not defend itself or to destroy the ability of any of it's enemies to fight again.
GVAC - You clearly get it.
HIPPIE - Getting rid of the scab of Arafat isn't the ends or even the means to an end. It's one part of a campaign against terror, much as we're going after Osama.
And I'll leave with this imagery from Earnie's House of Whoop Ass. (Another guy who gets it). You know what I'd love to see coming out of Saudi Arabia, even more than oil? Nuclear fallout.
<img src="http://members.aol.com/rnfpantera/hking1">