Chairman Shalom Ne’eman of the Gush Etzion Regional Council has welcomed the demolition of the homes of the terrorists who murdered Dvir Sorek, saying “Targeted damage to terrorists and their property is the minimum required for the war on terror.”
Ne’eman added, “The real answer should be collective punishment, even to their senders and supporters, which must come alongside the continued [Jewish] construction and settlement expansion. This is the perpetual answer to terrorism that achieves deterrence against the wrongdoers who come to harm us. The equation should be simple: anyone trying to destroy a house in Israel, Israel will destroy their house.”
This is a hot potato that can easily derail by collaterally hitting those who are genuinely innocent. The essential problem in the Arab World is its lack of nation state correspondence and its prime loyalty to extended families and clans. If you consistently hit or threaten somebody’s family and clan you might induce them to “sit on” the trouble makers by way of discouraging and not glorifyiing warlike acts but it is a tricky form of social warfare. However if done once or twice as more than demolishing the house but also firing them from their public sector jobs and contracts and jobs with public sector contract(or)s then it might just need but one or two instances for the hostile population to get the message.
“Collective responsibility” is what you want in an effort to use social ties to restrain errant individuals, not collective punishment. One does not lead to the other.
Punishment of the immediate subordinates of the terror leadership will undermine him giving good leadership the opportunity to prevail.