Not including this latest spate of violence between the terrorists of Gaza and Israel, over 800 rockets and Mortar attacks have been launched against the Jewish state since January 2012.

Over 30 people sustained injuries in March of this year alone. People living in the southern towns of Beersheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Yavne, and Netivot practically spend their entire lives in bomb shelters. Several months ago residents of Beersheva were lucky when a rocket scored a direct hit on an elementary school which fortunately was vacant at the time. To their credit, or as some including this writer might say, to their discredit, Israel has been responding with restraint no other nation with their military resources would.

Trumping the diplomatic blunder of Oslo II signed in September 1995 was the security fiasco of unilateral withdrawal from Gaza made by the Sharon government in August of 2005. As reciprocation for Sharon's misconceived effort to improve Israel's security and international status, the Jewish state has suffered seven years of kidnappings, death, and destruction. In fact, less than three years following the dismantlement of Jewish settlements and the exit from Gaza, Operation Cast Lead was launched at great cost in blood and treasure to stem the incessant shelling of her border towns.

During this recent crisis, the Israeli government has been trying numerous diplomatic efforts to halt the violent rocket attacks from Gaza. Appeals to the UN secretary general, as well as appeals to successive presidents of the Security Council, have all come to naught. Instead, Hamas and their affiliates respond by ratcheting up the violence.

Hamas is a cancerous tumor in Israel's side. At the behest of friend and foe alike, successive Israeli governments have foolishly placed the wishes of others before the security of their own citizens and adhere to ceasefires before unequivocally defeating this insidious foe. Unless this mindset is reversed, future generations of Israelis will be doomed to fight increasingly more vehement cycles of aggression.

Hamas, sworn by Charter to the total destruction of Israel, is an Iranian client possessing increasingly greater amounts of far more powerful and accurate weaponry. Hamas is supported by the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood now in charge of Egypt and bolstered by once moderate but turned radical, Turkey.

As things heat up and the inevitable ground war is set to begin, the usual groundswell of hypocritical condemnation aimed at Israel from the jackal nations of the world is beginning to intensify.

This past Friday, thousands of people across the Middle East and Europe have demonstrated against Israel's attempt to eliminate the rocket launchers being used against her.

In New York, large crowds gathered in front of the Israeli Consulate to chant Palestinian slogans denouncing Israeli airstrikes. In Egypt, where Mubarak had kept the peace for over 30 years, several thousand protesters came out Friday to demonstrate against the Israeli attacks, chanting "we will go to Gaza in our millions," swearing to "sacrifice ourselves for you, Palestine."

In Lebanon, thousands turned up in Palestinian refugee camps in the north and south of the country to show their outrage against "Israeli violence," shouting "O Qassam, O beloved, bomb and destroy Tel Aviv," referring both to the rocket and the armed wing of Hamas of the same name.

In Iran, over 700 cities, including Tehran, saw anti-Israeli protests after Friday's prayers. Crowds there were chanting "death to Israel" and "death to America."

As for world leaders, up to this writing the usual calls for restraint from both sides emanate from the world capitals. Outlandishly calling for restraint and proportionality, they infer equanimity between Israel, a sovereign nation defending herself, and Hamas, a terrorist entity sworn to war and perpetual aggression.
Through a spokesman this past Friday, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon issued "...appeals to all concerned to do everything under their command to stop this dangerous escalation and restore calm. Rocket attacks are unacceptable and must stop at once. Israel must exercise maximum restraint." Restore calm? There hasn't been any calm. Calm is precisely what Israel has been forced to go to war for.

Maximum restraint? One has to wonder which nation within the world organization has ever shown more restraint than Israel has under similar circumstances. How many missiles into Texas would it take before the U.S. would obliterate a rogue group from Mexico? The correct answer is no more than one.

The British sent an armada 8,000 miles and went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, a few specks of land inhabited by more sheep than people.

During the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 Russia fought two wars against separatists from the Islamic region of Chechnya. Responding to condemnation for some tactics used during that conflict, then-president Yeltsin replied: "You have no right to criticize Russia for Chechnya. We are obliged to put an end to the spread of the cancer of terrorism." Israel, having abandoned Gaza in pursuit of peace, is somehow expected to do less.

If and when the ground attack does proceed, the terrorists are certain to employ their usual tactics. Despite every effort made to avoid collateral damage and despite warnings which no other country has ever given during a time of war, civilian casualties are sure to mount. Most assuredly, this will not occur by Israeli intention, but will be caused by the cowardly placement of rockets, munitions, and fighting personnel in schools, mosques, hospitals, and private residences by Hamas. As always, more concerned with propagandist benefit than the welfare of their own people, pictures of children with amputated limbs, and others traumatized and disfigured will fill the world media and blogosphere. Staged photo-ops and contrived incidents will garner sanctimonious, widespread sympathy and universal condemnation of the Jewish state. What else is new?

Long forgotten, except by the 1,000,000 Israeli citizens living in bomb shelters, will be who started this war and how it could have been avoided. Also forgotten will be where the onus for this death and destruction should lie, on Hamas and their patrons.

Unlike four years ago, the Muslim Brotherhood, backed by 1.1 billion dollars in American aid and hardware, now controls Egypt and supports Hamas to the hilt. Turkey, once an Israeli ally, is an emergent Islamic power and now an antagonist. Iran, the puppeteer of global terrorism, continually supplies her client Hamas with sophisticated weaponry which as we have seen in recent days can now reach every part of tiny Israel. With good reason, Hamas sees itself in ascendency.

What are Israel's options? Benign mediation having proven ineffective, total resection of this tumor known as Hamas must be made before Israel's enemies further coalesce against her. In any war there are inherent risks but palliation is no longer a viable option. The time is here, the time is ripe, the time is now for Israel to forgo the predictable world outcry for a premature cessation of hostilities and eliminate this tumor before it spreads further and destroys her entire body.