No good deed goes unpunished

Three years ago, Israel gave the Gaza Strip back to the Palestinians in an attempt to reach peace. In return, Hamas (which does not recognize Israel's right to even exist) started firing as many as 100 Katusha rockets per day into Israel from newly acquired Gaza.

Six months ago, Egypt brokered a cease fire which Israel honored and Hamas broke firing 80 Katusha rockets per day into Israel over the last 7 days. Israel warned Hamas and the Palestinians that they would counterattack if the rockets didn't stop and warned innocent Palestinians to stay away from Hamas targets.

Well, Hamas did not stop attacking Israel and Israel has counterattacked Hamas as promised. The press has focused on the civilian casualties in Gaza, not the thousands of rocket attacks that Israel endured which caused the counterattack. Unfortunately, Hamas routinely places their rocket launchers by innocent civilians because they want their deaths to motivate the Islamic extremists (these are the same guys that use suicide bombers to kill innocent civilians in Israel).

Can you imagine what we would do if drug lords in Tijuana, Mexico shot rockets into San Diego? One or two rockets and Americans would demand that Tijuana be turned into a parking lot. But we expect Israel to endure thousands of attacks over three years.

Israel has the right and obligation to defend its people against terrorists and it is doing so with the only option open to them.

Randy Rossi Grayslake