With all of the suffering due to the incessant shelling and missile strikes in the Negev over the past many months, thousands of Israelis have had to bear untoward severe security violations. Finally, finally, the Israeli government is responding in a somewhat limited fashion. No other country in the world would wait as long as Israel has to strike back in defense of her people. Residents of Sderot and other southern communities had to take to the streets of major cities in order to make their suffering heard? Such deafness on behalf of the government is unforgiveable. Even as far as almost six thousand miles away, we read about the rocket attacks, saw photographs, and heard the women and the children crying due to the shock of the relentless mortars and missiles striking Sederot. I hope that Mr. Olmert will now show the terrorists in Gaza what cost their inimical, callous, egoistic, sadistic air barrages and senseless, vicious, heinous shootings have incurred on the Israeli people and the foreign workers in Israel. This new operation in Gaza is not Israeli aggression and escalation: it is defense of the people of Israel; it is protecting the people of Israel; it is stopping the irrational actions of those in Gaza who wish to annihilate the Israeli people. Since Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well as Iranian terrorists will not stop the unilateral assault on Israel's soil, the Israeli military must stand up to such an offensive of hundreds of missiles and mortars now. In the meantime, the Israeli government should rethink its absurd practice of negotiating with Mr. Abbas, Mr. Qurei, and Mr. Erekat. The former individuals have only one interest: the total replacement of the State of Israel with a Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem. Not one centimeter of Israeli land in Yehudah and Shomron should be capitualted unilaterally to Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority. Moderate Palestinians have created a ruse which has been set straight: Israel is not a Nazi regime and its actions are not Nazi-like. Israel, like every sovereign country in the world, has the right to defend its citizenry; moreover, it is incumbent upon Israel to protect its land from those who wish to poach and destroy it.