In the days before Israel started obsessing over international opinion, Israel was highly respected, by friends and foes alike, as a gutsy little nation. Now that Israel stupidly does obsess over international opinion, we are subject to endless condemnation. Nobody respects a nation which doesn't respect itself. Israel needs to do what is right for our nation. Internatinal opinion shouldn't be a consideration at all.

Yaron, you are saying it is OK to be cruel! What if you were on the receiving end like 70 years ago? To be great and respected you have to show kindness, carrot and a stick. Obviously Israel is not interested in a peaceful solution; so it is not showing the carrot.

Protecting its citizens is not cruelty but the main duty of a state. The real cruelty is to tolerate random shellings on Israeli towns.

and don't understand what it takes to survive here. You need to comprehend the situation within its proper socio-historical context. Perhaps leaving Stillwater for Sderot for a year would assist your understanding of life in Israel. In the meantime, I would like to congratulate Mr. London for writing this quality and timely article. It has benefitted me and many other Israelis, I'm sure.

that Israel should satisfy US, UN, EU demands

The aftermath of Cast Lead shows the price of timidity. Israel didn't deliver the death blow to Gaza for fear of creating a humanitarian crisis so they are still planning our destruction. If Israel wants to have lasting peace, it needs to do to its enemies what the Union troops did to the South during the American civil war. Take a look at what general Sherman did to Georgia and South Carolina and his explanation for why he did it: “War is cruelty. There's no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.” Israel's refusal to be cruel is the reason that its people have never lived in peace.

Yaron, I love you and your article... Hope that there are a lot more people like you back home !

I am very disappointed to read this article for an author that i personally respect! While Yaron admits that the operation was a victory of cruelty, he believes that Israel should continue to impose the DISPROPORTIONATE response, but it should be done quickly!!!!!!!!!!!! So, after all it was OK to kill 1400 of Gaza people, and from now on, the timing that is important, and those civilians who died (or will die) can go to hell!! The author would not have reached this conclusion unless he believed that the Jewish blood is the only valuable blood here and that the Palestinian blood is just worthless! I agree with the author that Israel must not aim to satisfy global public opinion. Instead Israel should pay more attention to the humanitarian consequences of its actions and set higher ethical standards for itself.

Sometimes, the Leftist Yaron takes a Zionist stance. Good for him. Good for us. The problem is, that it doesn`t take long,.Once his adrenaline level lowers, he becomes what he really is: A Leftist.

kol ha kavod yaron, being a hardcore leftists you are learning about the reality of our situation and accept what rightists have said for decade. go on and in the end you might even discover your jewish roots. ;)

what they understand...metaphorically, it's called a 'big stick'. It's really unfortunate, nonetheless, the only thing that keeps things quiet. It's widely used in Arab countries/regimes too to maintain order. We generally don't need it inside the green line, our Arab population know where their bread is buttered....the West Bank and Gaza tend to forget. We're not hearing much from Sri Lanka lately.....wonder why?

Let him call hiself Tapuach, Kiriat Arba or Efrat - anything but London. London wants civilised people associated with it, not racist thugs.

any opinion. Besides you were kike before Gaza, you were kike before 1973, 1967, 1948, ... And there is no reason to think you will not be kike regardless of what you do. So, stop looking for World's approval, do what's best for you and protect your six because nobody else will.

great article. thanks ynet G-d bless Gilad

You are wrong. Israel has always been obsessed with international opinion - right from the lobbying of Herzel and Weizman down to the formation of the Hasbara department to spread sick lies and untruths in order to temper international opinion. Whoever thinks that a country can survive in a total vacuum is really living in a fool's paradise or is actually Mr Ahmedinejad himself. It really would be a great surprise if, after murdering and bombing 1400 Gazans to death world opinion was not completely sickened. If you lived in a civilised country, you'd note that the whole world is sickened by China's execution of a mentally sick Briton today, or perhaps you just have some particularly juicy quotations from Jewish law about hardening the hard towards humanity. If that is your outlook on the world, then you have forgotten the main element of Judaism which is hesed and rahamim.

Don't always believe everything you read in the papers and don't be a victim of Hamas propaganda. Of course, it's up to you who you think is right, notwithstanding, you need facts from both sides to make a good judgement http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/war3.html

There is a good reason why a rotten tooth is extracted in one painful yank. Pulling the tooth in 12 sittings once a month would be cruel and unusual punishment. Israel would be more humane to extract the rot of Hamas in one decisive strike and spare the denizens of PA of continuous "tit for tat". World war II was cruel and bloody, but it would have lasted much longer and cost ten times over if it was fought Israeli - style: ensuring that no enemy gets hurt. In short, strike fast, strike hard, and spare no enemy until the banner is raised over the Reichstag and the enemy signs unconditional surrender. Then there is a reasonable precondition for peace talks. Not the other way around. Our grandfathers understood that concept well. At what stage have we lost the ability to understand it?

you do not deserve to pretend to be Jewish

Why not call him a heroin smuggler? Do you have any idea how many people could have OD'd from those 4 kilos of scag had they got into the UK. He had to be mental to risk getting caught IN CHINA of all places! What's more, they probably regard him as a Pakistani. Sad day for his family

"Herzel" - please! Theodore Herzl. Or in his native Hungarian: Herzl Tivadar. You are clearly ignorant. Why should we take seriously what you say?

nora ..all the people have the same physiology ....it is about the adrenalin ... but sure the psychic state may control this physiology but when it is a disease it needs medicine or surgery or iam sorry it will lead to death ........ i do not hope the death of any one by adrenalin elevation or by phosphorouse elevation .......

I don't give a damn what junior faculty in Norwegian university anthropology departments think. They aren't bombing our buses. I DO care what our delightful neighbors think. Let them think that they too, live in a very scary neighborhood, and that they had better be careful of their words and actions.

Is Chana Lau talking about the civilized London that annihilated the indiginous people of Canada, Australia, USA, Jamaica, Barbadoes, etc. and replaced them with Anglo Saxon colonists? Go repatriate the 70 million land grabbers from the US, 8 million in Australia, 10 million in Canada, 2 million in NZ. Let London pay reparations to their victims.

You are wrong in your use of the word "disproportionate". A disproportionate repsonse is not us killing more Gazans than they kill. It is keeping on killing after our objective (the stopping of kassams) has been met. The idiotic Gazans were thumping their chests and swaggering, still firing rockets on our civilian areas until the bloody end. We have a better military than they do, so it cost them more lives to act this way. If they call our response "disproportionate", the one way to deter it for sure is not to start firing kassams again

Thank you for this post. Agree with every word. Hope our leaders will come to their senses.

Firstly, we were at much worse receiving end, - there can be no comparison, what-so-ever; secondly, Israel is showing too much carrot, and too little stick, unfortunately.

"We generally don't need it inside the green line, our Arab population know where their bread is buttered." Really?