>I don't believe that Israel's policy of assassinating members of >organizations that promote violence against Israelis has had this effect. >To me, this policy is wrong and wrong-headed; that is, it is not likely >to have the desired effect. But, it doesn't seem to have caused problems >(e.g. being voted out of power) to the politicians that are the source >of this policy. Any evidence that I'm wrong? Having absolutely no clue at all about the state of Israeli affairs, let alone the degrees of truth in your assertions here, I'm not equipped to argue it one way or another. Israel is in a constant state of war, effectively. If peace truly came to the region, it would be interesting to see if public opinion continued to condone (as you're implying) government-sanctioned assassination. In any case, I was thinking more along the lines of members of the government feeling free to use assassination amongst themselves rather than being voted out of office due to general disapproval of the populace. An Israel with no outside threats would be a much better test bed for the theory than an Israel that must stand united in order to survive.