I just wrote this letter to the editor of our regional newspaper in response to their article on Palestinian civilian casualties.

What will we do if San Diego is attacked almost daily, for years, by rockets from Mexico?
Obviously we will use all the military power we need to stop them and not wait so long as the Israelis have been mistakenly doing.

One of the main goals of all terrorists, Hamas included, is to kill as many civilians as they can, both their own brothers and their enemies. Hamas, like Hizbullah did in Lebanon, shoots it rockets from civilian population centers to slow Israelis response.

This merciless approach to their own civilians is used by all Arab terrorists. We see it daily also in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Israelis have been sacrificing their own civilian and soldier lives to reduce Palestinian civilian casualties. Israel can demolish Hamas forces easily from the air alone, but it does not do so because it is against the Israeli mentality to kill innocent people.
But there is a time when response is mandatory.

No country can allow its civilians to be killed, communities to be attacked, and not respond. In the Middle East, lack of significant response leads to escalation of terrorism.

Matania