by Rory Walkinshaw

Created on: February 21, 2009

Israel's recent incursion into the Gaza Strip, code-named "Operation Cast Lead," was self-defense. Period. It was a military response to a terrorist network that, since the withdrawal of Israeli forces and Jewish settlements three years ago, has grown stronger - powerful enough to literally govern the territory.

The background to the current round of fighting is simple enough, or as simple as things can be within the "never-ending war." In 2005, the Israeli Defense Forces completely withdrew from the Gaza Strip. In early 2006, Hamas won a victory in the Palestinian elections giving the insurgent group, which does not recognize Israel's right to exist and has vowed to use terrorism to destroy the Jewish state, control of the Palestinian parliament. They are now the rulers of the Gaza Strip after a bitter civil conflict with the secular Fatah.

Hamas has used waves of suicide bombings as a tactic in the past, particularly between 2003 and 2004, to wage their unconventional war against Israel. The al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, increased their rocket attacks on Israel substantially once Israel withdrew from Gaza.

After Israel conducted an operation to destroy a tunnel being constructed by Hamas on the border with Gaza, most likely intended to make it easier to smuggle terrorists past checkpoints, Hamas called off its recent truce with Israel and once again began to fire rockets into the country. By December, Israel was fed up and decided that they had been shelled and mortared for long enough. They struck back. Hard.

The massive air and ground offensive into Gaza, regardless of its controversial nature, was exactly the right thing for Israel to do. Israel must send a clear message to Hamas that terrorism will no longer be tolerated and that the terrorist infrastructure inside Gaza will be crippled. Israel should have disregarded any and all calls for cease-fires, besides temporarily allowing humanitarian aid into the territory, until it had wiped out Hamas' manpower and substantially wrecked its ability to carry out attacks.

So far, the operation seems to have reaped major successes. Israeli air attacks struck buildings and headquarters utilized by the militants. Israeli Defense Forces ground forces engaged several squads of Hamas gunmen who opened fire from a mosque on Jan. 12. A search of the mosque uncovered a cache of rockets and other munitions. Similar incidents also occurred, leading to the death or capture of Hamas fighters and the seizure of arms

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