The Bluesky-ization of the American left – by Noah Smith
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I remember walking through a bookstore in college and seeing an issue of Foreign Affairs with the headline “The Palestinian H-bomb”. I was curious, so I picked it up off the rack and gave it a quick read. The article — written during the days of the Second Intifada — argued that there was no practical way to stop suicide bombers, so as long as the Palestinians were able to keep recruiting a steady stream of people willing to give up their lives to take out a few Israelis, there was really no way for Israel to stop them.
It sounded plausible, and I recall being pretty convinced of the thesis at the time. But it turned out to be wrong. Just a few years after that article was written, suicide terror in Israel subsided to a low level:
Source: W. Robert Johnston
