life vs property-historical view of punitive action

[Stan]

I know the Israelis have been destroying the property of insurgents/terrorists/suicide bombers for years. Can anyone out there comment on how well that has been working?

Amnesty's report (not justification) covers two major categories. There's little in the report regarding the effectiveness of the program however :

The destruction of houses, land and other properties falls into two categories: houses built without a permit and houses, land and other properties which the Israeli army claims are destroyed for “military/security needs”, including the destruction of the family homes of Palestinians suspected of carrying out attacks.

1 – Unlicensed houses: The destruction of houses in the Arab sector in Israel and in parts of the Occupied Territories on the ground that they were built without a permit. Hundreds of homes have been demolished in the Arab sector in Israel in the past few years alone, whereas such demolitions in the Jewish sector are an extremely rare occurrence, if they occur at all.

2 – “Military/security needs”: The vast majority of the homes, land and other properties destroyed by the Israeli army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent years fall under the category, which Israel defines as destruction for “military/security needs”.

[Rex Brynen]

The IDF conducted an investigation into its punitive demolition policy, which ultimately found that they had no observable deterrent effect, and instead tended to simply anger the Palestinian population. As a result, the practice was substantially curtailed in 2005.

Demolitions do continue, to enable settlement expansion as well as construction of settler bypass roads and the separation barrier. Demolitions also occur of unlicensed construction in Area C of the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, where it is often difficult for Palestinians to get building permits.

The families of Palestinians involved in armed attacks no longer automatically have their family homes demolished. However, Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter did call for the demolition of the family home of the gunmen who killed eight Israelis at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in March.

I haven't seen any more recent reporting on this.