Should compromises be made with the enemy in this war?

AS THE WAR DRAGS ON, there is increasing fatigue among many writers and commentators, who are thinking of this question: ‘When will this war end so we can enjoy normal times again?’

Fundamentally, this form of thinking leads to the reality of making compromises with the enemy. And compromises with terrorism inevitably leads to more terrorism—not less. This what years of study has led me to conclude.

Think of LTTE, the ‘Tamil Tigers’ in Sri Lanka. Every single time the central government of Sri Lanka compromised with them, it led to more exceptional acts of terrorism.

Why?

Because during the negotiating, LTTE would extract valuable resources, whilst giving up nothing, especially not their primary goal, which was the establishment of a separate state in northern and eastern regions of Sri Lanka. This conflict continued for decades, until a determined government war till the bitter end led to the end of this terror group in 2009. Now, after so many years, there has not been a single terror attack by either the LTTE or like-minded entities.

This proves terror can be defeated once and for all.

But only when we stop compromising will the same victory happen.

Unfortunately, right now, it looks like everyone is ready to compromise again.

Another way to think of this situation is like this: imagine you are in school, and there is a big bully who attacks us. He also demands we give him our lunch money. So, we comply. Then he increases the amounts he demands after some time. When will this injustice stop? Either we stop paying him, and defend ourselves hard with force, or we leave school altogether. There is no other option—except that he is removed from this school by administration. In total three options: we attack him to make him stop, we leave school, or the school gets rid of him.

The same with terrorists attacking Israel: either we make them stop, or we leave the land, or someone gets rid of them exiling them far away. These are the options, and compromises with terror will mean more compromises to the point where we will have to defend ourselves again like now, endless war. Or we will have to leave. These are all bad options. The only good option is to win the war now, and not make any compromises.

In conclusion, no compromises must be made for the sake of security and safety.