How an Israeli academic - professor of Electrical Engineering - sees things

By Dr. M. Nazarathy
1: Who remembers that the world hailed when Israel retreated from Gaza 3 years ago? Gaza was about to become the Singapore of the Mid East as the wealthy Arab states were preparing to pour heaps of money into it, but then Hamas took over (which we owe to Bush's insistence on "democracy") and threw it into an age Islamic extremism.

2: Israel said back then when it left Gaza: "We dismantled our settlements in Gaza - we are out - but if you shoot at us from the area we vacated, we shall hit back with all our might" but never made true on its promise - until now.

3: Hamas also poses a direct and immediate threat to the stability of the Egyptian regime, through its alliance with the "Moslem Brothers"
militant opposition and Iran. If you listen to Mubarak, beyond lip service comments on Israel's action, there is scathing criticism of how Hamas prompted the current crisis by violating the last six-month ceasefire pouring volleys of hundreds of rockets on Israeli civilians days before the action - which left Israel no choice but to act.

4: It is inevitable that Israel address this existential threat from the Iranian-backed terrorist state - "Hamastan" - pouring ballistic fire into Israel, digging tunnels across the border to smuggle in homicide bombers and kidnap soldiers - having delayed our action for three years and having acted indecisively now costs many more lives on both sides (but still far less than if the action were to be further postponed).
Why? Since Hamas increased the area coverage of its rockets by a factor of 16 under the cover of the last ceasefire, turning now the lives of
3/4 of a million Israelis into living hell.

5. Even though the death statistics on the Israeli side are low, whole cities are paralyzed and rendered dis-functional as people duck for cover several times a day, families living in terror under the random roulette selecting whether or not it is their turn to get maimed and killed or have their property destroyed, each time sirens wail. The world keeps counting the casualty scores, which luckily is lower on our side but this is no life for us. In particular, in the Israeli villages and towns bordering Gaza a whole generation of Israeli kids has grown disturbed, traumatized by years of repeated and continual exposure to the Hamas bombardments targeting them.

5. If left unchecked Hamas was projected to reach Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem with its ballistic terror as soon as the next wave advanced Iranian supplies made it in, as the siege of Gaza has been imperfect and increasingly more sophisticated rockets already got smuggled in, increasing the ballistic range and destructive power of the blast. That means that if Israel did not act now, it would have had to act within a year or so with tenfold might in order to address this existential threat to itself and to the stability of the whole Middle East.

6. I view it as the utmost responsibility of my government to protect my fellow citizens, and I have been personally appalled that action has not been taken sooner - but better late than later.