Israel Must Act Now

I just submitted this letter to the New York Times. If it's not published there at least I can still express my disdain for Secretary Rice's cursory regard for the situation.

After spending weeks digging a tunnel and ultimately ambushing an Israeli checkpoint, Palestinian extremists left two soldiers dead, four injured, and one of the injured kidnapped. In response, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice counseled the Israeli government “not to let the situation escalate, and to give diplomacy a chance to work to try to get this release,” according to the NYTimes article entitled “Israeli Troops Enter Gaza; Bridges Are Hit.” While this is a great idea in an ideal world, it fails to account for the reality of the situation.

During the construction of the tunnels by the militant extremists, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert was attempting to negotiate the Prisoner’s Agreement to establish a peace plan with President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders. Israel was seeking a democratic resolution to the situation, while the extremists were continuing with their plan of attack. Now in order to have some bargaining power, another Israeli youth has been kidnapped and the spokesman for the responsible group is claiming that the boy will be “butchered in front of TV cameras,” according to Haaretz. Israel should not wait for another child to be kidnapped in order to negotiate with dishonest extremists. Israel must use its military might to control the situation before it escalates further.