israel-gaza tension

a great op-ed piece in the new york times reminds us of the constant threat forcing the hand of the Israeli government in launching what would be more accurately called a counter-offensive:

To the south, Israel faces the Islamist Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip and whose charter promises to destroy Israel and bring every inch of Palestine under Islamic rule and law. Hamas today has an army of thousands. It also has a large arsenal of rockets — home-made Qassams and Russian-made, Iranian-financed Katyushas and Grads smuggled, with the Egyptians largely turning a blind eye, through tunnels from Sinai. Last June, Israel and Hamas agreed to a six-month truce. This unsteady calm was periodically violated by armed factions in Gaza that lobbed rockets into Israel’s border settlements. Israel responded by periodically suspending shipments of supplies into Gaza. In November and early December, Hamas stepped up the rocket attacks and then, unilaterally, formally announced the end of the truce.

There's nothing nice about civilian casualties, but Israeli sovereignty is infringed upon from all sides, and even within (the portion of the article about the growing Arab minority within Israel is telling). There are plenty of instances in which Zionism seems overwrought, overblown, or unnecessary, but this is absolutely not one of them.