A government's first duty is the protection of its citizens. Those who have attacked Israel's military action in Gaza seem to think that this does not apply when those citizens are Israeli.
A million Israelis in the south of the country have been in the line of fire of the rocket bombardment from Gaza - nearly 130 rockets since Saturday and over 750 so far this year. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have had to take to air-raid shelters. Israel remains reluctant to move towards a larger conflict with Hamas and other terrorists, with the fall-out that would bring. But no government can simply stand by and let its citizens be attacked by rockets with impunity.
So it is right that Israel has launched surgical strikes designed to achieve specific military aims - such as the killing on Wednesday of Hamas' military leader, Ahmed Jabari. Operation Pillar of Cloud is a proportionate, sensible and entirely justifiable response to terror.
