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Three rockets fell Thursday in the area around the Gaza Strip, one in the yard of a Sderot home - just a few reminders that Israel is still far from its declared goal in Operation Cast Lead. Discussion about the military operation's outcome revolves around the term "deterrence." If Israel can enshrine Cast Lead in a long-term agreement, the war will be remembered as a success. But fears are mounting that the operation's military achievements are dissipating. If so, the operation will go down in history as a less-than-successful round in a long war in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces left Gaza with the feeling that it had proven itself, after its debacle in Lebanon in 2006. But it seems that the bottom line will have to wait. In Lebanon, too, it took several months before it could be concluded that although the IDF made mistakes, enough deterrence against Hezbollah was achieved to prevent renewed fighting. Barak, who was quick to criticize what went wrong in L...

A blog from an angry Indian India is no stranger to terrorism . When I was born , Kolkata was in the grip of Naxalite terror. When I was a teenager , Khalistani groups terrorized us. When I was in university , the LTTE assansinated Rajiv Gandhi. Over the last two decades, we have been constantly at the brunt of various Islamist groups, both home-grown and foreign . However, the attacks in Mumbai suggest a totally different level of threat to national security . First , the terrorists seem to be able to strike simultaneously and with impunity at some of our most iconic social institutions – the Taj hotel, CST station and so on. Second , the terrorists clearly knew what they were doing and who they were targeting. This is no bomb-and-run job. They knew their way around and inside the two hotels, they knew where to find the Jewish rabbi, they knew about tourist-friendly Café Leopold and possibly they deliberately killed the head of Mumbai's anti-terror unit. Third, and most i...