Januray 18, 2008... Is that all you've got, you pansies!

At the height of World War One the British commanders devised a brilliant response to counter the German machine gunners: The British Tommies would simply step out of their trenches and walk towards the German machine guns. Suitably awestruck, the Germans would flee their posts in the face of their inevitable destruction. Instead of doing so, the Germans shot the British Tommies down like rats in a barrel.

Such history is now the foundation for Dina Silber's thinking with respect to the plight of the residents if Sderot and other cities and towns within range of Hamas or Hezbollah attack. From an economic perspective Dina Silber's position is reasonable, for it is simply not feasible to armour plate the north and south of Israel against incoming projectiles, with Israeli citizens scurrying for cover, many times a day. However, it is the primary function of the state to ensure that its citizens do not have to suffer any such imperilment to their right to life. For the Israeli state to recommend that Israelis must hang tough in the face of incoming projectiles as a viable means of defence in the face of their enemies' determination, is to forfeit the state of Israel.

This kind of thinking as a response to radical Islamic terrorism is not unique to Israel. It is pervasive all across the European Union (EU) including the United Kingdom whose government has devised another strategy to fight terrorism by restricting everyone else's freedom. Terrorism thrives in an environment where terrorists are confident that retribution is unlikely, and any that there is, is designed to achieve the terrorists goals for them. It is a win-win situation for terrorists.

For historical reasons spanning millennia, Israel has no alternative but defeat its enemies. It may be possible over time to do so by way of 'wisdom and daring'. However, Israel's enemies have all the time in the world including a seemingly endless supply of comparatively primitive weapons smuggled in via Egypt and within EU aid shipments, and sympathy from the likes of John Dugard of the UN, for instance, in consort with willful ignorance to draw upon. That being so, Israel has no choice but perch the dove of peace and unleash the dogs of war that are the proper response to a situation in which Israelis find themselves cowering, crying and/or dying under showers of primitive rockets-cum-mortars from Gaza and/or Lebanon.