Retaliation was Israel’s only option

It's not the physical damage Qassam rockets cause that provokes Israel, it's the psychological impact which "has left an entire region paralysed with fear," says Seth Freedman, writing for The First Post. "In terms of abject fear, nothing I experienced during my 15 months of active combat duty in the Israeli military compared with my last visit to Sderot [a bombed town in southern Israel]," says Freedman. "Missiles rained down indiscriminately on schools, homes, parks and gardens."

"Israel has the unimpeachable right to defend its citizens in the firing line," argues Freedman. Israel is wrong to turn the Gaza Strip into a prison, but Hamas should not "collectively punish the citizens of Sderot, Netivot and Ashkelon as a way of sending a message to the Israeli government.

"Whatever the casualty figures, the residents of southern Israel have been forced to suffer in silence, and raise an entire generation of children whose only experience of Palestinians is terror and hate."

FIRST POSTED JANUARY 5, 2009