Yep, unless the palestinians actually are given some decent future prospects to look forward to, the suicide bombers everybody is so upset about will keep coming.
Against someone that determined, there is no real defense. And don't delude yourselves, like the Israeli right wingers seem to have a tendency to, that the said palestinians are just "subhuman monsters" (see the article above), motivated by their craving for innocent Jewish blood. These people are desperate, fighting a battle they don't have any real way of winning, with horrendous casualties on their side. No matter what the highly publicized, dreaded suicide bombs reap in dead and maimed, the Merkhavas, M60s and Apaches are way more effective. Just check the link above (in -dead-'s post): around 2000 palestinians versus less than 500 Israelis.
This is how the suicide bombers are made. If your brother, sister, mother etc would be "collaterally damaged" in one of those "surgical strikes" the IDF seem so fond of, combined with no real future prospects of a normal family or at least some economical prosperity, you might start thinking about wearing that belt. And you might not be too choosy whom you target with it. Of course noone can ever excuse the killing of innocent civilians (by either side, btw). The problem is that, in such a conflict, there is no such thing in the mind of the combatants (after all, if the IDF can kill you brother/sister/father why would you spare the relatives of the soldier that pushed the trigger). The religious craze is just the final drop, justifiying an act that otherwise just might be rejected by the last traces of empathy left by the years of hatred and revenge wishes. No imam or mullah could ever convince happy, prosperous young men to dress up in plastic explosive and light that match (there are exceptions to that, notably the guys piloting the planes on 11/9, the Waco guys, the japanese sarin spreading weirdos or any suicide sect for that matter; however, it would never turn into a mass fenomenon, like it is now). This is why you don't see saudis blowing up in Jerusalem.
Of course, exactly the same reasoning applies to the opposite side. Every time a suicide bomber kills some Jewish youngster, there is a chance that kid's brothers/friends will become rather poised against everything of arabic descent/origin, and when they take their turn serving in the IDF, well... Or even worse, it might motivate more Israelis to join the settlers, the main source of this neverending bloodshed.
Anyway, my condoleances to every family touched by this festering conflict. I hope I will live to see the day this will end, and I hope I won't regret seeing it.
Just my .1 oere.
