You need to come speak on the bbc!

Wow, I'm impressed with this article it explains everything to the tooth. Job well done...now go on CNN and all the bashing international networks and reiterate this exact message. i hope the idiots of the world will understand the issues better! I say blow up the GAZA into pieces once and for all! Israel Rules!!

What about the "civilians" in Israel that have been subjected to the Hamas rocket attacks?

If war was to be fought the UN-Lefitist way... A) We would still have slavery B) Hitler and the Third Reich would have won. C) Imperial Japan would have won D) Taliban would still rule Afganistan E) Saddam would still be filling mass graves with his own people. You can only win a war by disproportional use of force.

There ARE laws of proportionality in war. But the critics of Israel don't understand the equation. Proportionality is not a question of "evening up" the military power of each side. Rather it is a question of balancing the legitimate military aims of the operation with the expected damage to innocent noncombatants. If the latter clearly outweighs the former, the response is disproportionate. By the way, I think Israel clearly meets the requirements of the proportionality doctrine. But it doesn't serve anyone well to say "Who cares about proportionality?" The doctrine exists and is important.

its amazing how u make things so clear., i wish u can send it to the Us Media and BBC and CNN and the rest of those Arab owned Bias media...GOd Bless u and our soldiers in Israel

Point 1: No, this is actually not a response, this is a full-fledged offensive that top-level IDF officers have planned since the day they signed the truce. Point 2: The index of killings by qassam rockets is trivial- this year, prior to the recent offensive, only 1 person has died from qassam rockets (Late February). The slaughter surrounding that killing left 120 Gazans dead. Point 3: The amount of goods allowed to enter is only a fraction of that necessary to supply Gaza; that Israel controls everything entering Gaza says much about who has a hand in Gaza's situation. Point 4: You are right, what truce? Aid to Gaza/ lifting of the siege did not increase one iota, fishermen were still attacked, and many more were killed; it only took you until November to say "there was no truce." Point 5: From the moment Hamas was elected sanctions were introduced and the big bosses in Washington bankrolled Mahmoud Abbas to take over and call new elections; any conciliation between Hamas and Fatah was met with hostility and escalation from the Israelis. Point 6: 50 civilians thus far have been identified as civilians, but many, many more who have been killed had nothing to do with rockets; if bombing a pharmacy, a police station, a university, a power station, a few houses full of children and others in the list of 300+ buildings destroyed by the IAF that resulted in 350 dead 1600 wounded does not sound much like avoiding civilian casualties... you belong in the Smithsonian.

This place has been a paine in the ass for the last 10 years or before. Get serval large Bull Dozers and push everything out to sea and start over.

Point-by-point analysis of why critics are wrong. This is important and very necessary. See- the hardcore critics will always remain hardcore critics. If you present this to them their response will be "Zionist liars! Israel kills Palestinian children! Nazis!" This article is not intended for them. The people who need to read this are those on the fence that are unsure of who to support, who doubtlessly would be drawn in to emotional Hamas propaganda exporting pictures of dead children. We need to show the steel logic and the "this makes sense" that marks the Israeli side of the story. Emotion vs logic. It's an age-old battle. Condolences to all Palestinian civilians killed, and bravo to the IDF for using the failures in Lebanon as lessons to enact a much more successful and precise campaign in Gaza. This is one of the most humanely pulled off military operations ever done in human history, especially because of the fact that Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on Earth.

i'm very grateful for ynet for preparing this well done article. now if only the producers of bbc and cnn will read it, everyone around the world will be better informed. thanks.

I read all the opinions coming from peolple that read the local newspapers here in Argentina , and the main critic isn't any of those that you writen. What people say here is that Israel doesn't want to let Palestinians to declare the independence of the palestinian state. And sadly that is an answer that we don't have. You know what I mean, I agree to erase hamas from the surface of the earth, but if there's no way to get the palestinian independence they will continue to fight till the ends of the times. Sadly there's only two options get'em the independence or kill'em all and none of both will happen soon.

Thanks Yigal, I am going to use this as my "hasbara" information when asked these particular questions in Bangkok. Well done.

I'll tell you why it isn't drivel. If it weren't for the fact that Israel makes every effort not to harm civilians, the irredentist thugs from Hamas wouldn't be hiding behind women and children and using civilian neighborhoods as launching pads for their Kassam rockets. After all, if you know your adversary doesn't give a shit about killing civilians, there's no point in using them as human shields.

if hamas is a monster, it was created by 60 years of israeli opression, same for hezbollah, islamic jihad etc..etc.. they were created for a reason, living in a prison for 60 years and i quote "one of the crowded places on earth" while having far from enough supplies to live properly can have it's toll... israel looks for short term solutions rather than long term ones, this is "might" help stop a few rockets, but in the long term, uve made alot of kids hate israel in a whole new level by killing they dads moms, brothers/sisters.. and the saddest part is all the people saying/thinking "kill every last person in gaza and lets build ourselves more settlements.

I am thinking as a civilian because I am one... but my nice Palestinian neighbors are firing missiles at me and my family, civilians did I say already... So you can take your riotous self back to Florida because darling your country the US of A would leave non alive in any of your neighbor countries would fire missiles at you

I feel like these words were practically taken from my mouth. Kol Hakavod! Excellent article.

You added nothing new to the debate. In fact, all you did is re-state the cliches.

Why wasn't it mentioned that the reason Hamas bombs hit Israeli citizens is because of illegal Israeli occupation of the Gaza strip?

it infuriates me when some ill-willed politicians claim of disproportinal response of israel. disproportional measure is not and should not be an issue otherwise why do we send hundreds of well equipped with sophisticated artillary cops to a site where only two thieves are robbing a bank!!!! if someone tresspasses your home with a knief, you have a right to answer back with a gun. or are you blamed you should have fought back with a knief too. so funny of these diplomats!!!

arab world is so happy israel is doing the dirty work of eliminating a terrorist group which has terrorized israel, the world and their own people. do you think gazaneans or iranians are happy with their regiems? why would any of them ESCAPE immediately if they get the opportunity? i hope this time israel will not be fooled by a truce. by their islamic doctorin, a temporary and even humilating truce is justified to buy time for them to grow stronger enough to hit back in future. israel should eradicte hamas at any expense to relieve herself, palastineans and the world. if israel allows them to survive, the damage will be far greater in the future. same as hezbillah and israel closed her eyes on growing terror group and after 20 years israel was unable to fight back. i hope israel will go through this hard time to eliminate hamas in order to avoid harder time in future.

As you all know, Israel is FINALLY trying to stop the HAMAS from terrorizing its citizens. Unfortunately, when it comes to public relations, Israel sucks BIG TIME (and this is coming from an Israeli...). Lets help Israel ! Lets combat disinformation and bad public relations. We can all comment on news websites, send pro-Israeli massages to friends and help combat those anti-semitic cliches. Here is a link to one of the very few pro-Israeli videos in YouTube. I'm not a Netanyahu follower but I have to admit that he's a BRILLIANT speaker and he does a lot of good for Israel by appearing in such interview as the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a60Cy2GEl20 Thanx for reading...

While Palestine has a right to exist fully as a nation of the same level as Israel or any other recognized nation, Israelis do live under constant threat of annihilation, so their survival answers cannot afford to be mediocre. Arabs have all pushed Palestinians into this conflict, but they are only around in words when Palestinians really need them, which is why people in Palestine have been deceived into believing that violent militant resistance is the only choice left to them. If Arab nations really cared about Palestine, they would quickly make such a nation flourish through investing in commerce, education, responsible government, culture, and especially PEACE. That way a Palestinian State would be a natural thing, living next to an Israeli State in peace. But many Arab governments DO NOT WANT THAT. They are interested in keeping the Palestinians mired into this tragedy so that they can keep trying to hurt Israelis without actually having to shed blood and tears themselves. There won't be any peace until Palestinians choose leaders who have bright minds for bringing about the rebirth of the Palestinian nation, not just minds for war and martyrdom. Their current leadership keeps fixed upon 'being ready to become a martyr', as if being brave has anything to do with desiring to die, as if the desire to live a fruitful and beautiful life has no bravery at all. This is actually cowardice masked as bravery. True brave leaders would seek and bring about the path towards peace and existence, instead of leaving it all to death and martyrdom. True leaders would fight towards a path that brings the emergence of a Palestinian nation without denying Israel the right to exist, for no nation can wish to live by desiring the death of another nation. Palestinians must choose life over death, not only for themselves, but also for Israelis, while Israelis must also choose if they want to be forever at war with their neighbor. For Israel is not without responsibility in this nightmare scenario, since it also does have leaders who thrive on war and desperation, as if Israel could only exist for that purpose. Peace will only come when those who desire death die. Then those who desire life will find a way to coexist even with different visions. In the meantime, there will always be excuses and reasons for war and death.

Thank you for this article, although millions worldwide are being chated by lies about Israel and the "palestinians". I am with you pals.

Did Israel create Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam and al-Kaff al-Aswad in 1930? Did Israel create the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt, or was that a reaction to the secular dictatorship? Did Israel create El Qaeda, or was that a result of the corrupt Saudi regime? Do you think that maybe Israel created Yasser Arafat and Fatah?

When will I see the author on CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera?? Israel needs these kind of statements on public media..

I am not even a Jew, and I have to agree with everything this man said.

Good Luck Israel ! We pray for you guys ! Wish we could do the same as you guys!

Excellent! No other nation would allow what Israel has endured.