I applaud Bloomberg for standing with Israel, and I fully support the country’s recent military actions. Israel has the absolute right to defend itself. It’s unfortunate that it is fighting an enemy cowardly enough to abuse its own citizens and to force them to stand in front of launch sites during missile attacks. It is well documented that Hamas forces innocent bystanders, even young children, to gather on top of or in front of missile launching sites and terrorist hide-outs. Hamas believes it is OK to use human shields and put their rocket launchers in hospitals and apartment buildings, encouraging the people not to leave when Israel is bombing targets.

The organization has succeeded in creating outrage among the citizens of many countries by depicting the tragic deaths of so many children who have fallen victim to this horrendous battle. However, understand that there would be no battle had it not been for Hamas launching hundreds of rockets against Israel.

To date, Israel has been fortunate to suffer limited casualties. The Israeli missile defense system, dubbed the “Iron Dome,” has limited the effectiveness of the unprovoked rocket attacks. As of this writing, Israel has unearthed more than 30 tunnels leading from Gaza into Israel. These tunnels are used to launch terrorist attacks against Israel. What choice does Israel have? It must destroy the tunnels and the capabilities of the launch sites Hamas has been using.

I stand with Israel in its fight against terrorism, and understand that the country will continue to defend itself until the tunnels are destroyed and Hamas ends its rocket attacks.

The situation in the Middle East and Eastern Europe remains precarious. A missile developed by Russia and given to Ukrainian separatists shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. This was an unthinkable tragedy, made worse by the fact that the plane’s pilot could not detect the missile due to the fact that most commercial airliners do not come equipped with detection systems that could alert them to rocket launches.