Israel Forced into the Abyss of War

The most current escalation in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza has deep roots going back since before the creation of the state of Israel (1948) – when it was part of Egypt.  Israel had tolerated a tit-for-tat low level war of attrition as long as the threat to its citizens was contained. The difference today is that Iran is increasingly supplying the Gaza Palestinians with sophisticated missiles capable of terrorizing the main population centers in the heart of Israel, including Tel Aviv – Israel’s version of N.Y.C... Iran’s surrogate force in Gaza, Hamas, has fired up to 25 Iranian made versions of the long-range Russian Katusha  rockets at Tel Aviv and thousands more shorter range missiles randomly in the south of Israel terrorizing over 1 million innocent civilians, killing scores of Israelis.

Israelis have fought (and successfully won) many long, hard wars and have suffered thousands of casualties. They know the price of war, and they openly admit they love life and grieve for every lost soldier and innocent civilian caught up in this conflict. Israel has done everything it could possibly do in order to minimize its casualties and avoid war. Israel uprooted hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in Gaza in order to test the “land for peace” concept touted by the Palestinians and parroted by diplomats.  In return Israelis received over 10,000 missiles that originated in Iran, and traveled through Egypt unimpeded. Israel can no longer be content with developing and depending on a sophisticated defensive array of anti-missile systems to knock down Palestinian projectiles, as the sheer number of missiles fired assures some will get through the shield to terrorize Israeli civilians. Nor can Israelis depend on sophisticated fortifications to protect its citizens from Palestinian missiles.

The core responsibility of ANY government is to protect its borders. No country on earth would have been as patient as Israel has been with the Gaza Palestinians led by Hamas/Iran. Israel is finally taking the offensive against this threat in order to protect its citizens. In every war that Israel has been in, the outcome was never known or guaranteed. Israel’s leaders are well aware that this unavoidable clash with the Palestinians of Gaza could escalate into a wider conflict with Iran, Egypt, Syria and/or Lebanon.  It is with this knowledge - that the scale of war, the number of casualties, and the outcome is unknown that the Israelis have entered into the abyss of war.