The death of 4 or 5 Israels is a big deal, but the massacres in Gaza is something normal, shame on you!!!

If you have free speech, you can say anything you want to. If Israelis want to protest against the war, they are absolutely entitled to do so. But why in Tel Aviv? Why don't they go to Sderot, Ashqelon, Ashdod, Netivot or even Beer Sheba to protest? Because anything south of Tel Aviv is a foreign country? Or is it because people who get shot at on a daily basis and know what it means when the eastern edge of Gaza City is 200 meters from the border might have their own agenda and not be as willing to listen to them?

Arabs mobilize demonstrations not just in Israel but worldwide when Israeli retaliation to their continuing efforts to get rid of Israel gets too hot for them. When this Talkbacking began Jews worldwide saw this optimistically as an opportunity for dialogue and compromise. It has gradually sunk in that by "occupation" Palestinians mean all of Israel and repeated Arab use of "occupation" and "2 state-solution" is just a propoganda ploy to get the West to force concessions and boycotts on Israel. While I and other Jews regret innocent Arab casualties as a by-product of war, Israel has to care of itself even if the large number of Arabs make a lot of noise worldwide.

Hanoch Daum has captured the Israeli and Jewish feeling on this completely. Enough of the cries of the left, arabs, muslims etc....we have to do what we need to do for our own well being.

Baruch Hashem for Hanoch Daum. He has more common sense than all the Israeli naysayers put together. It goes against human nature for Israeli Jewish people to lack sympathy for their brethren targeted in the South. But their peculiarity is even more shameful. It is laudable to evince sympathy for civilians in gaza, but why can they not muster any sympathy for the civilians who are targeted daily by rockets on their side of the border? This double standard puts them beyond the pale.

Bravo! Mazel Tov YNET!!! Now I pray Israel has the courage and stomach for this war in the face of almost the entire world against us. Of course everyone understands who terrorist Hamas and their warped followers are all about but face it, the world would rather side with them than Jews. Always been this way. It will never change. Internally we must toughen ourselves to it to fight for ourselves.

As if we care what someone like you in London thinks. Will you be joining the IDF to defend Israel , do you live on the firing line? Or do you just prefer to comment on News sites from the comfort of your home in London ?

To the point and right on. Pls spread your words to other news outlets. By the way, you left out that Gaza arabs voted HAMAS in. Noone is mentioning that. With the exception of children, those so-called civilians in Gaza aren't so innocent after all.

Childish article. Of course, no-one expects Israel to care about world opinion. If one thing is patently clear from the last few weeks it is that Israel places very limited value on non-Israeli civilian life. But: 1 - doesn't mean that people won't continue to register their disgust at your actions. 2 - it's part of a longer term game. The world is getting fed up with Israeli aggression and arrogance. Israel will go on ignoring the world but will, over a period of time, become another pariah state. It is true that you evacuated Gaza in 2005. What you appear to have conveniently forgotten is: - it wasn't yours to begin with. Unless you are some crazy fundamentalist who thinks God gave it to you. You were just doing what you should have done 40 years ago. Thieves who return stolen goods get an amnesty, but not a pat on the back. - You didn't withdraw from the rest of the Palestinian lands at the same time. A people remain under occupation until you withdraw from all of their territory. - You never fully implemented the 2005 AMA and following the kidnapping of Shalit and the Hamas takeover you progressively tightened restrictions on Gaza, destroying the economy, bolstering Hamas and stoking extremism. - the rocket fire increased hugely in January 2008 following a number of high profile assassinations of Hamas leaders including Zahar's son.

Hanoch, you have touched a nerve here, which will resonate with millions of righteous people. But it is not enough to write one column. Go public, and start a counter-movement in support of the defence of Israel and her people. Show up the demonstrators against the IDF actions for what they are. I wish you and all your supporters Godspeed.

This is the best artical I have read in years. The left does have it's right o protest but right now no one really cares what they say. During the last war it was the same way and they didn't come up here to the North. Meretz take notice!!!!

I actually AGREE with Hanoch Daum for the first time ever Great article

This is exactly what we all, as Israelis should say out loud. We dont care about what the world right now is saying! Where have they been the last 8 years with 6000 rockets falling on our citizens in the south. Where have all the condemning voices been all this time. It is always when we defend ourselves against terrorists that all the jew haters come out of the woodwork. I am proud to live in Israel, proud of our army and so happy to be far from all the dirty antisemites in Europe. AM YISRAEL CHAI May all the Chayalim be safe and may they succeed to end all terrorism once and for all.

The massacre in Gaza is caused by Hamas and no one else. Go yell at them and try to educate yourself.

BRILLIANT ARTICLE AT LAST

Yes the death of even 1 Jew is a big deal and we would massacre you in London for that as well.

I get an intense feeling that after the war is over and the need for peaceful compromise resurfaces, many of those whose opinions are relevant today will find their opinions irrelevant then. Today a majority of Israelis support the war but their support is not as homogenous as it appears. The time of peace will show their true motives and separate the wheat from the chaff.

Gosh, Maria, did you bother making a stink when Amnesty International concluded that Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians are crimes against humanity? Did you protest outside the Palestinian Authority office in London? Did you lobby Hamas to renew the "lull" agreement and to stop their illegal rocket fire that has been going on for 8 years with 10000 artillery rounds fired at Israeli civilians? Or did you keep your head in the sand and suck up the propaganda that the rockets are in "response" to the border closures, rather than the truth of the other way around? With gullible dupes like you, it's small wonder Hamas felt it was ok to continue their war crimes. Here's the link since you missed it: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE02/003/2002 Oh, and by the way, during the war I don't recall the British counting their dead, and then making sure they only killed the same number of Nazis and Germans.

Andrews so knowingly reminds us "the rocket fire increased hugely in January 2008". And what about the rocket fire for the 7 years before that? The problem with armchair experts like you is that you sit in front of your computer and don't bother to learn before you post. What about the thousands of rounds of anti-personnel weapons fired indiscriminately at Israel from Gaza? Gosh, that certainly sounds like a war crime to the experts (Amnesty International, not me) - I'll bet you never said a word about that, or wrote to your congressman to ask them to lobby Hamas to obey international law. So too bad, Andrew from Chester, but when attacked, we will reply in kind, but do our best to keep them from shooting at our civilians again. And fyi, peace will come at the end of peace talks. Yea, we ARE doing that too. You might have noticed, had you bothered, that Hamas is strategically and officially opposed to peace, and endorses attacks against civilians. If you don't like this current war, then why didn't you bother getting Hamas to stop shooting at us over the past 8 years? We haven't "conveniently" forgotten anything. You have conveniently not bothered to learn some essential facts.

"- it wasn't yours to begin with." Justly or unjustly the UN decided how to partition the land in 47. The Arabs chose war. "You didn't withdraw from the rest of the Palestinian lands at the same time" Most logical leaders would take Israel's pulling all military assets and Israeli settlers out of Gaza as a valiant first step. Hamas responded by increasing rocket fire by 500%. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Qasam_graph2002-2007.svg) "You never fully implemented the 2005 AMA and following the kidnapping of Shalit and the .." Hamas never stopped targeting innocent Israeli citizens with rocket and mortar fire. "the rocket fire increased hugely in January 2008 following a ... " So let me get this straight Israel killed terrorists and the terrorist organization is justified in retaliating against civilian targets to avenge their deaths? Hamas sent Israelis living in southern Israel text messages telling us that they were going to increase rocket fire against us and that we would not be safe anywhere. Israel dropped pamphlets, made phone calls, and fired warning shots to save civilian lives. I should check my machine but the last time a rocket flew into Netivot Hamas didn't provide me with a warning. Even with the ground invasion underway Hamas is continuing the rocket fire against souther Israrel - even when military targets are in the strip and available to fight. How can you defend that? I am a non Jewish American living in the red-zone on a temporary assignment in Israel for work. It is easy for you to take sides from your home in the US. Perhaps you should come visit me and feel the helplessness of living under the constant threat of missile fire.

To Maria: the word "massacre" is the most overused in the terrorists' apologists lexicon - remember the Jenin "massacre". Before we shame anyone, let;s get the facts right. Hamas - after being phines and texted by the IDF that the missilies were coming - sends women and children INTO the appartment blocks where they hide their missiles - where's the proportionality now ?

It is incredible, yes even comic, to see a people who have been on the run and persecuted for three thousand years, getting fascist after merely 60-years of having established a 'state'! Keep bombing, maiming, and destroying, and ask your YHWH to spere you the turn of time. Well, you have waited for three-thousand years to establish a state, give Palestinians a century or two! What goes around comes around, and the judgement will be without mercy for those who had no mercy - unfortunately! Keep on sowing blood and destruction, you are dooming yourselves for generations to come! You should have learned a different and more humane lesson from all the wrongs done against you for centuries!

The loss of innocent life in Gaza is absolutely heartbreaking and all Jews should see that. We must not be callous. However, Israel has an absolute obligation to protect the life and property of its citizens and this is a just operation designed to do just that. This catastrophe that has fallen on the heads of the Gazans is due to their own behavior. Next time don't choose leaders who prefer to be Iranian pawns willing to put you in the line of fire to satisfy the puppet masters back in Tehran.

Fully agree with contents. Mass hysteria in favor of terrorists is totally irrevlevant to what Israel does or does not. And continued preemption ought to be the call as described, irrespective of the vociferous anti-jewish sentiment prevailing with radicals in many parts of the world.

and agree with Kev and the author. You are the only Israeli talkbacker who said "These actions make me ashamed to be Jewish". That puts you on rather shaky ground, wouldn't you agree?

That hamas asked us to come in ,and that they are more then happy to die. We of course obliged. Excellent article, keep it up.