Let's see if I understand, viewing from afar. 10,000 Kassams have landed in Israel and Israel has yet to announce publicly a current response? Minister's remaining silent is just begging the question, to hit back or not hit back. Now we hear that some IDFers may get killed or injured in any attack. Wowowo, could have tooled me, with all the new bunkers and weaponry in Hamas hands. What did the lull accomplish for Israel? We know what for Hamas. To Israel: just hit them, hit them hard, no mercy. Take out their towns, then their cities. Use helicopters, F15s, Merkavas, sea launched marines..strike 24-7 until your prisoner is released (he is dead anyway at this rate). Use bunker busters on those bunkers, and clusters and concussion bombs. One tank sweep should actually do the job, if done right. Israel wake up., Iran's nuke is getting closer and closer, while you haggle over leaks and muzzle voices.

(though actually this proverb, so wise in the grand strategic domain, originated in west Africa). Loud boasts are useless. The boaster tips off his enemies, and the boaster looks like an idiot if he is not instantly and overwhelmingly successful, and even then he looks weak and insecure. He who is strong does not need to shout.

During the 1968 US presidential election, it was hinted that Nixon had a "secret plan" to end the war in Viet Nam. The "secret" was he had no plan beyond doing what they were doing. Ben-Yishai claims Israel has agreed on a plan, but we mustn't talk about it. Sorry, the present government has what we used to call a "credibility gap". No one believes it any longer. And why should they? Gaza was declared a "hostile entity" giving Israel the right to take action. But all it does is bluster. It sets "red lines" which don't last past the next news cycle. It sets conditions, then ignores them. It calls for patience while they're, no doubt, figuring out what to do. Face it, Ron. The people no longer trust their leaders.

During the Lebanon war we all waited for the secret plan to unfold. It never did. While I really want to believe that the Israeli govt and military are capable of executing a super secret creative plan that will gain all the objectives I guess that I, like all of us, must just wait and see.

The ceasefire brought much needed relief to the inhabitants of Sderot and surrounding communities. A renewed escalation on the Gaza border will not bring safety , rather the opposite. This is what war-mongers looking for the "excitement" of military action should think about, while they sit far away from Sderot of course....

It is hard to believe that this government has any plan; it would be totally out of character.

Ron Ben Yishai is without a doubt Ynet's best commentator.

Ron Ben-Yishai it seems to me you are a member of the same club

To Rick D: Perhaps the Israeli gov't doesn't have a plan? Maybe that's why the silence preferred? What can they really do? They have few choices. They can do as I suggested, bombing 24-7, towns and cities, bunker busters, etc. with all the ramifications (excessive force, collective punishment, Zionist aggresson, etc.). They can take over some dunams of land..extend the border..where does that end? They can take over the entire strip..along Egypt, etc. with all that that implies., IDF deaths, Palis deaths. Yes, maybe silence is golden in this case. Some have suggested a UN force..hows about a division of US marines, taken from Iraq, to control events. But then again..would the Obama Democrats go for it?

it is best that the Palestinians remain extremists because then no one will ask the government of Israel to negotiate with them. How do we insure that the Palestinians remain radical? We simply strike at them, over and over, via assassinations and incessant bombings, until they drive any thought of supporting a peace policy out of their minds.

Be silent and secretive while the cowardly minister of evictions(defence) and the corrupt prime minister wet thier pants in fear.Hamas might says BBBBOOOOOO to loudly. The UN and EU wil hear and then Israel will be reprimanded.

This is Chelm, no?

This writer, most media, and all of the israeli politicians from the right and left are so smart that they are absolute morons. If an enemy nation shoots rockets at your civilian centers, you shoot back with everything you have. I guess I am too stupid to be left wing. I think the arabs and the moslems hate us. Mostly because of what they say and do. I think the world does not support Israel. For the same reasons. If I was smarter I would probably be able to see that the arabs love us, want peace with us, and that the EU is helping us in every way possible, that Israeli politicians are far richer than their salaries justify for reasons that maynot be clear but are assuredly legitimate though don't have to be verfied, the Israeli courts are totally dedicated to justice which means that settlers have no possible way to acquire land and arabs selling land is non-binding (and this is what true justice was meant to be), right wing protests are always reason for police brutality and left wing protests despite turning violent on a weekly basis are wonderful things, and that having my head jammed up my posterior for until I can't see the sun is a more reasonable way to live.

don't you remember the last lebanon war? olmert changed his mind 4-5 times in the same day. attack? don't attack? invade? don't invade? these guys need to go so that people who actually care about israel can run things. i have zero trust in kadima and labor.

Barak has been all talk and no action since he became defense minister. Like it or not, he's known as the PM who pulled the IDF out of Lebanon in the middle of the night like a pack of chickens. Olmert since the war in Lebanon has become a pacifist and scares nobody. This has only emboldened Israel's enemies who if they had Israel military strength would have already attacked & destroyed Israel.

to do nothing....what a embarrassment this country is