It's right there.

Yes. I acknowledged that. But it's still very similar. You have a group with a grievance. And, like the VC, they are embedded in the civilian population. You can't stomp them out without also eliminating most/all of the civilian population. So you either have to do that, or you have to stop unilaterally and go home. In Israel's case, if they removed many of the grievances (e.g. resumed their original, legal borders), that might actually be more effective. As it is, they're giving the Palestinians reasons to hate them.

Al Qaeda has been taken over by ISIS, mostly. Though I note that a SEAL team killed less than a dozen people in one night, and that pretty much ended that organization. All the bombing in Afghanistan paled in comparison to that one raid in Pakistan. But, as I said, they didn't just go away/die. They joined the group du jour (i.e. ISIS).