This is something I wrote in an ongoing argument with a libertarian conservative friend of mine. It was in response to a question about what I would do if I were Israel. While showering and thinking about my response, I kept coming back to one thing... I fear a LOT of things, but muslim extremists terrorists are pretty low on that list.
My response below...
You act as if all of the world's problems can be boiled down to one solution and that everyone must have that one or they can't participate in a discussion about policies and actions.
The analogy I use is that my daughter is going to Europe in June with her friends. Do I have fears for her safety? Absolutely. Would I bomb someone to alleviate those fears? No. Could I bomb someone, somewhere to make her safer? No. Does bombing Iraqi families make her safer? No. Does an imperial presidency with no checks and balances make her safer? No.
We live in an unsafe world and always have. This pretense that your war mongering makes it safer is both contemporarily and historically preposterous.
The things that I want for my community, my state, my country and the world do not boil down to prevention of one neatly packaged elimination of terrorists at any cost. Would I like there to be less terrorism in the world? Sure. But there is no terrorism in my community and I seriously doubt there ever will be any. I take that back... the ELF burned down two homes a mile or two from here last year. We didn't respond by bombing anyone and it hasn't happened since then. But I digress...
I fear a nation where my children don't have civil liberties. I fear a nation that is regressive and oppressive. I fear a nation that does not have progressive distribution of wealth. I fear leaders that believe in imperial powers. I fear suppression of free speech. I fear educational policies that are based on ignorance of basic science. I fear the domination of unbridled corporate greed. I fear economic strife. I fear ignorance.
Terrorism? It hardly even rates as a visceral, day to day fear. I certainly don't believe in ignoring all my other fears in the ill-conceived pursuit of an unwinnable "war on terror". All the hyperbole about Hitler (which is what that is) doesn't change that.
Back to your original question.... what would I do if I were Israel? The first thing I would do would be to grant immediate and unconditional sovereignity to the Palestinians. Then I would pursue economic and social policies that would increase cooperation and collaboration on common grounds. I would also tear down that border wall.
Would this eliminate terrror in the region? No, but I've already said, that is not something that war/retribution/oppression accomplishes either. Terrorism declines when people have incentives to pursue relevant and self-directed political action in a meaningful, personal and relevant context. Something that you seem to be missing about the United States.
Why don't we have more local terrorism? Because we have civil liberties and and a relatively open, prosperous and informed population. Because our leaders are beholden to an electoral process and a constitution that allows us to effect change. Now look at the things that the current administration is doing and ask yourself if they are supporting, advancing and working within that context. I say they are working as hard as they can to operate OUTSIDE of that... and THAT scares the crap out of me. Far more so than muslim extremist terrorists.