What else can we do?

I have avoided being political in my posts. I like to share the daily happenings of my life and the new experiences I am having. However, I can no longer ignore the reality of the political situation here by omitting it from my blog. While I anticipate sticking to a lighter tone in the future with my blog, I feel compelled to write about what is going on in the Gaza Strip and the surrounding Israeli towns.

First, I would like to give a brief recent history of Gaza. In August 2005, Israel unilaterally pulled all of its troops out of the Gaza Strip. In June 2006, Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier, was taken hostage and has been held by Palestinian militants ever since. In June 2007, Hamas forcefully took over the Gaza Strip in a bloody coup. For more than a year there have been relentless rocket attacks on the southern Israeli city of Sderot and the surrounding area.

These attacks by terrorists are without provocation. There are no more settlements in Gaza. The IDF and the Israeli public want nothing to do with this piece of land. However, the rockets keep raining down, striking fear into the residents in the south, causing much structural damage and the most frightening, sometimes wounding and killing Israeli citizens. Again, these are baseless attacks. There are no Israeli soldiers in Gaza, no more Jewish settlers either.

So what can we do? This is the subject of great debate amongst Israeli media, politicians and everyday people. We all remember what happened in the summer of 2006 when we went to war against Hezbollah and do not want the same thing repeated. However, we cannot sit back while Israeli citizens are killed without reason and do nothing. Hamas leaves us with little alternative other than to fight back and enter Gaza again.

We have no choice. Just this past week, dozens of rockets fell on Ashkelon and an Israeli was killed. I often take the Ashkelon bound train out to visit my family. Ashkelon is 3 stops after Rehovot.

Even for people who crave peace, the Hamas led terrorists in the Gaza Strip leave us with no choice but to respond. As I write this, clashes are already underway and the IDF is doing its best to prevent further attacks. Already 2 soldiers have been killed and many Gazans have died. Undoubtedly the fighting will continue and maybe there will eventually be an end to the rocket attacks that were the sole reason for our soldiers to get involved in the first place.

No country in the world would put up with bombs being fired on its citizens and neither will we.