Through a publicity campaign, Israel’s Home Front Command will prepare the nation for “all-out war.” The purpose of the publicity campaign is to inform the general public what they should do in the event of an attack against the nation.

The planned campaign follows a two-day March exercise where the Home Front Command, the Israel Police, Fire and Rescue Services and other emergency services responded to mega-terrorist attack and non-conventional missile attack scenarios.

War is looming over Israel, and the government is about to educate its people on what to do in the event of an attack. This is a responsible course of action, to be sure.

But insofar as it is a totally defensive move, the campaign also fairly represents the posture of the modern State of Israel: It is resigned to the fact that it is going to be attacked and preparing to hole up and simply weather the storm.

This is happening in large part because of a truth that former Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon recently spelled out: Israel has lost its fighting instinct. Israel has chosen to bargain away its sovereignty rather than fight for what it won in the Six Day War.

It is this spirit of compromise that lies at the heart of Israel’s timidity. Ya’alon stated: “These last couple of years all we’ve been hearing is that we are strong enough to concede, strong enough to run away ….” Of course, a nation can’t defeat an enemy using withdrawal and disengagement. Neither can it do so by educating its people on merely how to survive a war.

Citizens of the Israeli town Sderot, which borders the Gaza Strip, know all too well that concessions haven’t purchased peace for Israel. This town stands as a monument to the futility of Israeli concessions and the ever-growing need to confront terrorism with something more than one-sided “peace” treaties and pragmatism. Kassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip have turned the town of Sderot into an undeclared war zone.

Rockets have regularly rained down on Sderot since 2000, with an increase in the tempo of attacks occurring after Israel’s retreat from Gaza in 2005. However, since May 15 this year, the number of rocket attacks has dramatically escalated. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported June 1 that since May 15 there have been over 300 rocket attacks generating 175 casualties, with two deaths. On top of that, 150 other Israelis suffered from anxiety attacks. The situation has caused a mass exodus from the city and a general feeling among the people of having been abandoned by the Israeli government. Hamas has claimed responsibility for the majority of the attacks.

Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi has opted for surgical air attacks on the leadership of Hamas in an attempt to disrupt the flow of rocket attacks and destroy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office website said “Israel cannot continue to show restraint when its citizens are being attacked” (May 16).

But that is just it. Despite what Prime Minister Olmert says, Israel is showing remarkable restraint. A simple comparison between Israel’s army and Hamas shows that. Israel has over 160,000 active army personnel (with another 1.2 million males fit for military service), 3,700 tanks, 10,000 armored personnel carriers, 5,400 artillery units, 400 combat aircraft and 130 helicopters at its disposal, while Hamas is said to have just 7,500 combatants—organized into specialized units—and no tanks, helicopters or armored personnel carriers. A true battle, without restraint, between these two forces would clearly be a rout in favor of Israel.

Sadly for Israel, it is hard not to concede Ya’alon the point that Israel has lost its will to fight. Hamas, Hezbollah and other terror organizations funded by Iran are closing a ring of terror around Israel’s neck. The situation is dire. Yet rather than fighting these forces in earnest, Israel meekly prepares to defend itself. It is a strategy doomed to fail.

Israelis do have a sure hope via a far different course of action, if only they would take it.