Ya know, as an ex-tanker (former U.S. Army 19K20), I have to say this about the people, regardless of age, who are throwing rocks at tanks full of people who may, if the pro-Palestinian faction is to be believed, seriously want to kill you just because you are who you are:
ARE YOU !@#$%&* NUTS?!
Speaking as a tanker, to those who would throw rocks:
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You have zero chance of hurting us. But you might scratch the paint job. This annoys us.
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Annoyed people with 60 ton vehicles and enough firepower to level a good-sized neighborhood is generally considered “a very bad thing.”
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Especially when they turn on the radio and hear that a school, or a street market, or a shopping mall was just blown up and a “Single-Use Palestinian Freedom Fighter” was responsible.
Israel wouldn’t even be in the OT if it hadn’t had to fend off three wars of extermination. That, in the final analysis, is why they are there. In military terms, it may be called “strategic depth.”
And the fact that the Israelis have willingly negotiated peaceful settlements with and returned lands to former belligerents who decided to play nice and peacefully coexist with them completely cuts the legs out from underneath any pro-Palestinian position advocating violence as a means of resolution to the dispute.
If we have seen the last Palestinian terror attack, the last rock thrown, the last “peacefull demonstration” that didn’t end in riots and chants of “Death To Jews,” and all Palestinians played nice with their Israeli neighbors, I’d be willing to wager that they’d get most, if not all, of what they wanted within 5 to 10 years. Perhaps longer, because of the now almost bottomless antipathy between them.
Otherwise, the exchange ratio of bodies may continue to escalate to the terminal detriment of the Palestinian peoples.
Because a suicide bomber loaded with enough explosives to actually hurt a tank would be about as conspicuous, and maneuverable, as a pregnant cow.
And just as easy to machinegun into hamburger from a safe distance
Alternatively, you can just throw a rock. The net effect is just about the same, either way:
Tank & Crew: 1
Fanatic: 0
Nothing solved, nothing gained.