It worked pretty well before. I draw your attention, once again, to this quote from Yitzhak Rabin:

"In the last two years, not one Israeli has been killed by PLO terrorism," Rabin said. The real threat, he said, does not come from Israel's old adversaries - he pointedly included Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in the faded threat category - but from "the ugly wave of" Iranian-supported Islamic fundamentalism."

--Yitzhak Rabin

Perhaps you might find studying the process that South Africa underwent to get where it is today helpful in understanding how these things can work.