[This article was originally  written in February 2009 and is being reprinted at this time]

It’s hard to understate the importance of the recent Israeli campaign against Hamas and its allies in Gaza.

Over 10,000 missiles, rockets and shells have been sent into Israel since 2001. That’s  more than 3 rockets every day. At least 1000 people have been wounded and 30 killed. No one in the world would live under attack like that!

Beyond the moral value of protecting the life of her citizens, Israel has been sending a message to the radical Islamic states and to the world: we are changing the rules of the games. From now on, there will be zero tolerance towards attack against Israeli citizens.

Hamas and the other fundamentalist organizations in Gaza are actively being supported by Iran and Syria and economically by other Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, who play the game of pretending to be moderate.

Hamas is controlling Gaza after its supporters violently overthrew the so called moderate Palestinians of Fatah. The main objective of Hamas is to destroy Israel by harming civilians and weakening the endurance of the Israeli people. Hamas is a brother organization to the Hezbullah, Islamic Jihad and Al Qaida.  All of these terror organizations have been declaring that targeting Jews and Israel is only the beginning of  a world wide Jihad against all heretics.

For more than two decades the Western progressive world has been playing a very dangerous game of pretending - pretending that Israel is the only reason for Islamic terror.  This overlooks the facts on the ground; radical Islamic cells are now scattered all over the western world including Canada. The US woke up from this game of pretending on 9.11.2001.

Europe is been courting extreme Islam  in the shape of  anti- Israel and anti- Jewish actions that remind us of  darker eras, and by unfair journalist coverage of what has really been going on in the south of Israel for the last 8 years.  According to all intelligence reports, Europe is likely to wake up to her own 9.11.

We Israelis are used to facing the hypocrisy of the Western world, but we should admit that we also were living under an illusion, and were also pretending. Many people in Israel thought that terror can’t and shouldn’t be defeated by military means. While Israel was debating moral issues, terror organizations were arming with more destructive weapons that can penetrate further into Israel. Israel woke up form her illusions in the Second Lebanon war that cost the lives of almost 200 Israelis, in which missiles hit into the  heart of Israel, even further than Haifa.

Now it is time to make sure that Iran, Syria and terror organizations will not get the wrong idea that Israel can be defeated. Now it is time to have them pay a very expensive price and receive a message not only from Israel but from the free world that terror will be answered, and that turning innocent people into a human shield will not work.

The UN has proven once again in the current confrontation between Israel and Hamas that it is biased against Israel.  On January 9, the U.N. ordered an immediate cease-fire.  Hamas, a few hours later, responded to the UN with a salvo of ‘Grad’ missiles that shelled Be’er-Sheva and Ashkelon in the south of Israel.
 
In order to make sure that the people of Israel will not have to suffer another 8 years of missile attacks,  the cease-fire has to include the following:

• A complete prevention of any arms or ammunition smuggling into the Gaza Strip from Egypt or any other country.
• A complete ceasing of hostility against Israel.
• The release of the IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held hostage by Hamas for two and a half years.

Otherwise Israel has no other choice but to continue this operation.  Otherwise, the loss of life of  Israeli soldiers, and civilians from both sides have been in vain.

The righter is an Israeli journalist that was covering events for Channel 2 News on Israeli Television, and now is the JNF Director/Emissary to Western Canada.