Ever since three Israeli teens were abducted and murdered last month, Hamas has mounted new attacks against Israel, firing more than 160 rockets from Gaza in the last few days alone. In response, “Israel ramped up its offensive on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip Wednesday, bombing more than a hundred targets overnight, as Palestinian militants fired rockets deep into Israeli territory, striking far from the seaside enclave and reaching towards major Israeli cities and the country’s coastal high-tech corridor,” reports The Washington Post. “Since the Israeli offensive, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, began Tuesday, Israel has attacked more than 400 sites in Gaza, killing at least 24 people and wounding hundreds of others.” It’s the third major Israeli assault since 2008, and it has succeeded (so far) in drastically reducing Palestinian violence. Israel knows it is constantly at war – or at least prepared for it – to preserve itself because Hamas’ objective is Israel’s elimination. And yet Israel faces constant pressure to sit down and talk with the very people who want to wipe it off the map. More…