sorry, i dont understand what you want hagai, but what about this: EVERYONE gets an iron dome: egypt, jordan, gaza, west bank, lebanon, syria, iran... preconditions: iron dome gets "adjusted", so that (i) it cant be switched off (ii) it also captures rockets fired from within... good, or not ?

Look at the dynamic duo leading this country.

Jeremiah 15 v 20

it is true that idf is cautious about undertaking offensive actions but there are new circumstances- 1) arabs call out the media within seconds, distort the truth and then get europe and goldstone to condemn israel for its defensive actions. 2) US applies tremendous pressure on israel especially from bush and obama to not respond to provocations 3) leaders like olmert and barak are either afraid of casualties and blood or in barak's case have had bad experience in land warfare and so prefer limited commando raids. What is clear is that concessions by israel cause increased casualties. Israel as ketzeleh and arens should hold steady, secure alternate supplies, not selll iron dome to anyone exspecially russia who will screw israel in a heartbeat, tell blair and ashton to go to hell and encourage arabs to move to jordan.

israel has a deterrant capability and a defense capability and both need be outstanding Didnt hamas hide under the gaza hospital so you wait for them to leave there is time.

When IDF acts, Hamas/Hezbolla pounds nearby communities, which puts pressure on the IDF to act quickly, and also to not act quite so often: out of concern for Israeli civilians who have to sleep in bomb shelters. Even if Iron Dome is not 100%, even if it is expensive to use, Hamas/Hezbolla have just lost that strategic weapon, and the IDF now has more freedom to act. It really changes the whole situation, even from an offense point of view.

in the history of warfare and conflict have walls and fortifications held back an enemy. Offensive disruption of the enemy is the only way to win a war. Hiding behind defensive positions is only postponing the inevitable, that is the offensive disruption of your fortifications by your enemy.

You can do both!

You wish to hold on to the West Bank. That's why Hamas must remain in control of Gaza. If you were to retake Gaza you would have to give it to the PA under Abbas or Fayyad. As long as Hamas is in control of Gaza you can say: if we pull out of the West Bank Hamas will take it over.

I was not being Machiavellian. Hamas will take over the West Bank if you pull out. Just like they did in Gaza. This is obvious. Things are therefore better now with Hamas in control only of Gaza.

Before the Oslo Disaster and the era of appeasement, Israel was widely respected, by friends and foes alike, as a gutsy little nation. We rescued Jewish hostages in far off Uganda in those days. Today we beg mocking terrorists to release Shalit, who is held just a few kilomtres away, in land that is legally orus! Israel must shake off the evil of appeasement. Israel must become again the gutsy little nation we were meant to be.

Israel should adopt a new policy: A Palestinian residential area where a rocket was fired from into an Israeli residential area should be given a two month warning then bombed flat by the IAF. Two months should be enough time for all civilians to leave the area so none are hurt and they can relocate to other areas. The area should be clearly identified by Israeli television. All this should first be checked out and given approval by the United Nations and Goldstone commitee so that there is no controversy. In this plan no innocent civilians will be killed or wounded and Hamas terrorists will be given a message that terrorism will not be tolerated.

Fortifications such as the Maginot Line and the Israeli "Bar-Lev" Suez Fortifications that the Egyptians easily overwhelmed are just 2 examples of the false sense of security, not to mention the waste of money for these Defensive Measures. Better to have a credible deterrence like the US had with the Strategic Air Command and use offensive necessary force when Security Red Lines are violated by those that want to destroy you. The UN has proven it is not capable of protecting Israel or keeping missiles from Hezbollah and Hamas.

You get it..Sad to say many people are willing to pull the covers over their heads and hide from the threats. Purely defensive tactics bring pure defeat. I shudder to think what program Bibi will put before congress. Where we once welcomed him in the USA we fear an Israeli Neville Chamberlain. Please tell him to stay home AND tell Barak to retire.

In the good old days Israel attacked and won over all the arabs in six days. You did not beg and ask and went to UN for permission to defend yourself. Israel went to Entebbe which is further away than Gaza, also without permission. Gonna go to Iran without permission? You won't get from Obama. Now? Negotiating with Terrorists - Golda is rotating in her grave full speed! Bibi knows exactly how many Jews he murders if he lets terrorists go free for Shalit, who probably is dead, sorry to say. Imagine the pride of all of Israel if the IDF went in, settled permanently in the Philadelphi Corridor and went from house to house to find Shalit. Now a lot is thinking more of the coming election to try to find someone who fulfills promises.

Jabotinsky realized it early on and Ben Gurion later accepted it: No indigenous population will cede their land to foreign settlers that come with the clear intention to take their land away. Therefore Israel has to live by the sword and surround itself with an Iron Wall. These were the times when things were still very clear and openly debated within the Zionist movement. Nowadays we are constantly led to believe that there's some religious or ideological reason why the indigenous population rebels against the theft of their lands and livelihoods. The problem is, that at least 90% of the lands of Israel were stolen, looted, cleared of its inhabitants and it's villages destroyed. You can't expect the ones that you haven stolen everything from to accept their fate submissively. And it doesn't help to throw them some breadcrumbs here and there and market yourself as a great benefactor. Here from Mars this looks just pathetic. Maybe start thinking in terms of justice and you'll find many willing partners for peace on the other side. Then you'll also don't need your Iron Dome any more.

The job of defending a country requires recognizing that the enemy in Gaza consists terrorist combatants and their supporters (some civilians) neither of whom are blameless and therefore both should be subject to the same fate. Wars end when the civilian population capitulates and forces their combatants to yield.

The best defence is offence. Retake Gaza NOW.

The mid east mess will continue on for decades until a war is declared and one side wins. The winner will not be a country that is afraid to kill the other country's civilian population. Iran knows this and the terrorist know it. Iran and their puppets also do not care what the world says about them. This goes for China, Russia and North Korea too. Israel's leaders do care. This makes Israel much less than a threat than it should be. Iran will start the war. Will Israel be prepared to use all means to win and fight for a total victory no matter what the rest of the world thinks? Unfortunately I'm not sure.

I had no idea why you perpetuate things that are not true and avoid history...until you noted you are from Mars. Read some history. Most arabs came in the early 1900's after the economy improved because of the Jews. In 1948 if you said Palestinians you meant Jews. The arabs originally came in the late 600AD with the Moslem marauders; centuries after the Jews. In 1948 they did not accept partition and attacked, after telling those arabs living in the area to leave. They left; they themselves cleared the land of it's inhabitants [not indigenous]. Unlike the Jews that were thrown out of arab countries where they had been living for centuries. Anything that has happened they have visited on themselves. Denying facts does not make them so, even if you are from Mars.

Mountains of records from Ottomans, British and even Arabs show much of the land was open and public, however with an illegal immigration of Arabs in the 1930s which the British couldn't stop, open land was stolen by squatters who now claim (without deed) that they've been there for centuries. Ottoman records show only 5% of the land in Palestine was private, and part of that was Jewish. So, of the other 95%, of which the local residents had NO governance over, how is that considered stealing? The only theft in the Middle East was actually in Arab lands where foreign rulers, supported by the British, were given control of disparate tribes of which they had no connection to, in a nation with man-made borders. Although, peering in from a desolate red planet, one which died off years ago, with new evidence showing nuclear activity in its past, you're successful in nothing more than existing. Hardly worth a prize in my book.

As Patton once said and I paraphrase-defensive fortifications are monuments to man's stupidity! I'd ask the gov't officials and the PM-Do yah think he knew what he was talking about? What indeed would Patton do if he were an Israeli and the arabs fired missiles into Israel? One guess-

so they provoke us into destroying their infrastructure over and over again. They might as well build with Lego in Gaza.

Which is why the Jewish people who have been living in these lands continuously for 3400 years won't give them up so easily to the threat of violence by more recent conquerors. Israel will, however, make painful compromises. Problem is that Israel's neighbors prefer war- too bad they're not very good at it.

be bypassed if you give attackers time to rest and think about how to do it. Active, agile warfare and active intelligence are also required against terrorists. Active offense is necessary to deter attack. While there is little price to pay for trying to murder Israelis, attackers will continue to try to murder Israelis. They will do it more and more. Of course, Israel ISN'T doing nothing. It IS striking back - just not as aggressively as I think is necessary.

Ok, I see, I got it all wrong. I should have believed the history written by the state and it's cronies rather than that written by independent researchers. I made that mistake probably because here in the libraries on Mars the former books stand in the "propaganda"-section right next to the pamphlets of Hamas and Hizbollah and the protocols of the elders of Zion for that matter - to be read with caution! We have this weird habit here of checking the sources and the funding of historians and we prefer to trust those who are the least connected to either side of the equation. I wonder why it is that we do this, but I guess it somewhere makes sense. But maybe I'm wrong and I should just side with one "side" and read what their "historians" have to say. That would probably make things a lot simpler...