You're right, if Israel pulled out all the stops, they could up the kill ratio to hundreds, perhaps thousands to one. All they'd have to do is send in their fighters and bomb the hell out of Palestinean neighborhoods. Hell, they could even drop a few of the nukes everyone believes they have. They have not done so. You could almost say that Israel is showing a measure of restraint.

The new (to the Palestineans) suicide bomber tactics go a long way towards explaining the sharp increase in Israeli fatalities. It's a far more effective tactic than throwing rocks at soldiers. It isn't necessarily a matter of being smarter (though their previous tactics were pretty dumb) but perhaps of being more committed. The fact that they've killed more Israelis in the last 18 months than they did in the previous 13 years says a lot about the effectiveness of their tactics. Still, I can't help but believe that an even more effective tactic would be complete non-violence.