Israeli media has pointed out that Israel should adopt the Sri Lankan experience to wage war in the Gaza strip and avoid negoriation with whom they term as "terrorists"

In an opinion artilce published in Jerusalam post, Michael Freund said Sri Lanka never considered peace negotiations with the LTTE when it entered the final phase of war. Frieund says it sets an example for Israel when it comes to the country's approach towards "terrorists"

"The truth is that there is precedent for the defeat of terrorist organizations through the determined use of military power" Freund says.

Following are excerpts from the article.

"Take for example the case of Sri Lanka. That country was forced to endure years of suicide bombings and decades of violence carried out by a terrorist outfit known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Negotiations and multiple cease-fires all failed to stop the Tamil Tigers, whom the FBI once labeled “the most ruthless and efficient terror organization in the world.”

The terrorists had succeeded in carving out a Gaza-like enclave in northern Sri Lanka, where they enforced their authority through murder, fear and intimidation. They used the area as a base from which to launch brazen terror attacks against civilian and military targets in the hopes of seceding and forming an ethnic Tamil state.

In 2008, after the Tamil Tigers violated a Norwegian- brokered cease-fire, the Sri Lankan government decided that the time had come to alter the strategic situation on the ground once and for all. In December of that year, the Sri Lankan military was sent in to Tiger-controlled territory.

“We gave clear instructions: no cease-fires, no negotiations until we defeat the LTTE completely,”Sri Lankan Defense Minister Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Washington Post in February 2009. “The LTTE would use cease-fires and peace talks to reorganize and resupply weapons. There have been...dozens of negotiations and more than 10 cease-fires. Everything failed. After every period of negotiation, they came back stronger. We decided enough was enough.”

Sound familiar? After several months of intensive combat, the Sri Lankan government succeeded in capturing the Tigers’last remaining outposts and killing its leadership.

In other words, Sri Lanka defeated the Tamil Tiger terrorists not by talking with or appeasing them, but by trouncing them decisively on the battlefield. They brought about an end to the conflict by the resolute use of military force.

Whether or not such a solution can or should be applied to the Hamas threat in Gaza is something that Israeli decision-makers may now be called upon to make. When doing so, let’s hope they put more stock in the experience of Sri Lankan generals than that of the Tel Aviv liberals, and finally give Hamas the thrashing it deserves. "