Our leaders declare that "We´ve taught them a lesson." True. For many years now, the terrorist leaders are saying to themselves, we´ve disrupted life in southern Israel - and recently, on the outskirts of central Israel as well. Yet despite having one of the world´s best- equipped armies, Israel is incapable of stopping us. The Zionist army, which in the past was noted for its courage and originality, has lost both courage and originality. It is pinning its faith, and exhausting its budget, on expensive interceptor missiles to use against our primitive rockets.

The terrorist leaders watch television and conclude that the Zionist state´s southern residents are depressed and disappointed. What has been is what will be, the terrorists hear them saying.

After the latest round, too, the Israeli government will continue to accept the ongoing, almost daily launching of mortar shells and Qassam rockets. ("If the firing continues," warned the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff after the latest truce was announced, "we´ll respond just as we responded previously." ) And when the army spokesman once again declares, "There were no casualties and no damage," he signals that Israel will continue to contain itself (after all, "containment" is their strategy, not seizing the offensive and winning ) in the face of the nonstop assaults on its sovereignty, the disruption of its citizens´ lives and the destruction of their sense of security.

The Israelis know quite well, say the terrorists, that only a ground operations could end our rockets. But ground operations entail soldier casualties, and for Israelis avoiding soldier casualties takes precedence over freeing mothers and fathers from having to fear for their young children, for their property and for their dignity. And so, in the long run we will wear them down.

Missile defense technology, however impressive it may be, is still defensive. The south will be saved by offense, not defense - by preemptive strikes, not by ex post facto interceptions. By the audacity of its statesmen, commanders and soldiers, not by awe at the accuracy of the Iron Dome antimissile batteries. As long as technology assists the fighters, it´s a blessing. But when it replaces them, the result is more than a dozen years of enduring injury to life, property, morale and deterrence.

Who needs tanks and planes, the terrorist leaders say to themselves, when every explosive-filled pipe sends hundreds of thousands of Zionists into bomb shelters and causes them to use up the stock of expensive Iron Dome missiles in which they place their faith?

Terrorist leaders in the south, like Hezbollah in the north, reached these conclusions - which they have tested over and over - many years ago. In every round, just as we did this week, we have opted for "containment" rather than victory. The prime minister, defense minister, chief of staff, generals, mayors and party leaders who declared that we won this last round are misled and misleading.

A significant blow to the terrorists´ infrastructure and leadership cannot be delivered using drones. The rockets must be detroyed before they are launched. Only ground operations can achieve victory - and even then, only on condition they aren´t stopped almost as soon as they begin, as Operation Cast Lead was in 2009.

The IDF, which has failed in recent years to grant residents of Israel true relief from the terror of rockets, must return to the sources of the spirit, daring, sense of mission and uniqueness that guided it in its first decades. Iron Dome won´t save us, and breathtaking surgical strikes won´t defeat terror. Only the daring and resourcefulness of the soldier who seizes the offensive (along with the daring of those who send him into battle ), the soldier who seeks engagement with the enemy and makes every effort to locate the rocket stores and destroy them, is capable - with sophisticated technology in the supporting role of providing protection and direction - of actually winning the battle. (© Copyright 2012 Ha´aretz 03/15/12)