The "quick knee jerk reaction" after PH was the Doolittle raid on Tokyo. This raid did nothing more than say to the Japanese people that "yes, we too can hit your shores...don't get too comfortable". The Nukes were still years away. JB
I suppose if their objective is to eliminate Israel, then the ghandi approach would not make sense. Much better to provoke Israel so they can then blame the Jews for being butchers, baby killers etc.