Jim Mullins' Friday commentary, "Mass punishment beyond proportionality," was exceptionally well answered by Thomas Sowell's "Cease-fires just help aggressors regroup." Thank you, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, for printing them together.
Obviously, Mr. Mullins has been living on another planet, which is devoid of any history lessons. War has nothing to do with "proportionality" of response. Mullins should have learned that from Vietnam and a host of other history lessons. War has to do with survival, period!
The mere irrefutable evidence of over 12,000 rockets stockpiled over the last six years by Hezbollah and now being fired on Israel should have given Mullins some hesitation to write as he did. Israel vacates the land and the Arab sees it as weakness and attacks.
Mullins' arguments ring hollow and give rise to suspicion of his motives. Does he really believe peace can be obtained from a people, Palestinians, who have steadfastly refused to remove from their charter, the goal of destruction of Israel and every Jew therein? And what does Saudi Arabia teach its children from the age of 6 on about the destruction of Israel?
Wouldn't a peace process, at least, begin with this seemingly small act of acknowledging the right to exist?