Meanwhile, inter arma silent musae. The region has changed beyond recognition since the time of the last operation in Gaza. The security envelope that Israel relied on has eroded. In Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood is in power. This is a movement that — like Iran's theocrats — calls for the total elimination of the Jews (not "Israelis" or "Zionists"). The Jordanian regime is being threatened more and more by the subversion of an even more radical anti-Israeli Brotherhood. Even the regime in Syria — as odious as it is to us — has not challenged Israel or allowed cross-border attacks. If it falls, it will leave a void to be filled by a motley group of Jihadists who share an anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli fixation. Therefore, actions we may take today that will keep terrorists threats (or a nuclear Iran) at bay may not be feasible tomorrow. From the West, it may sound like empty rhetoric to broadcast slogans quoting the Islamic Hadith which states that "the Last Hour will not come until you kill the Jews . . . Then the stones and trees will call: 'Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'" But most Israelis, 70 years after the end of World War II, believe that if someone calls for elimination of the Jews, given the opportunity, he will try to act on it. 

Israel expects the international community to recognise that there are no extenuating circumstances for terrorism. Were the international community to take steps to totally de-legitimise the Hamas regime in Gaza and make it clear to the Palestinian Authority that the relations with them are predicated on their distancing themselves from Hamas, that would have a positive effect. For the peace process to work, one cannot let a group willing to compromise be diluted by hard-liners whose raison d'être is the destruction of Israel and genocide of the Jews. The only way forward is to create a separation so that the more moderate elements in the Palestinian camp can, without fear of the radicals, meet Israel half-way. While I am not a disciple of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, he made an interesting observation in his essay "The Iron Wall," on November 4, 1923: "Only when not a single breach is visible in the iron wall, only then do extreme groups lose their sway, and influence transfers to moderate groups. Only then would these moderate groups come to us with proposals for mutual concessions."