Crush the House and Send the Family Away

In Israel, when a suicide bomber or other kind of Palestinian terrorist strikes, there is quick and harsh response by the State. The immediate family is arrested and the terrorist’s home is destroyed. Such retaliation may not stop terrorism completely, but one can be sure that it has an impact on the thinking of many who otherwise might want to commit a terrorist attack.

Many of the antiterrorist police and cyber strategies we employ in American airports and cities alike have been modeled after advances tried and tested in Israel. For some reason, immediate and harsh retribution against the families and homes of terrorists in America is not something we have yet to do.

Modifying visa programs and improving border protections may be appropriate steps to take. But the psychology of deterence and of retribution against the families of terrorists is far more compelling. One has to ask whether the recent idiot terrorist who drove a car down a bicycle path killing and maiming dozens of innocent people might have paused even a bit had he thought that his wife and children would be deported and their home destroyed.

It’s time to learn from Israel again. Let’s get tough America and exercise swift justice against those few held dear by the terrorist who menace us and our children and our way of life.