There will be many who still see Israel as a country under siege [from whom one might well ask - given that the rockets fired from Gaza have been so crude] but on one practical level Israel's very existence is under threat this or next year - from the demograhics confronting it.
The US Middle East Envoy, George Mitchell, in an extensive interview with Charlie Rose on The Page on the Time web site explains it bluntly:
"Charlie Rose:
And how much incentive is there to do something now because Israelis look at demographics. And they look at a window that may be closing on a two-state solution.
George Mitchell:
Yes. I think that's a huge incentive for that and other reasons. I think there are other reasons as well. But let's take the demographics. If you count the number of Arabs in Israel, in Gaza and in the West Bank, they are about equal to the number of Israelis, Jewish Israelis. And the birth rates among the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs is rising more rapidly, so the demographic lines are crossing in about 2010, 2011. That poses a very serious problem for Israel because if they can't get a two-state solution, and they've got a one-state solution, they want it to be a Jewish state, a position we support. But that will be difficult if they are in a minority. The second reason is technology. If there is an iron law of human history, it is that weapons are rapidly disseminated. And the invention of new weapons quickly spread around the world. Right now, what you have are rockets being disseminated, an estimated 30 to 40,000 rockets held by Hezbollah on Israel's northern border, Hamas having, I don't know the number, but a substantial number of rockets. And while the technology of particularly the Hamas rockets is crude, there is obviously an ongoing campaign to upgrade --"
The US Middle East Envoy, George Mitchell, in an extensive interview with Charlie Rose on The Page on the Time web site explains it bluntly:
"Charlie Rose:
And how much incentive is there to do something now because Israelis look at demographics. And they look at a window that may be closing on a two-state solution.
George Mitchell:
Yes. I think that's a huge incentive for that and other reasons. I think there are other reasons as well. But let's take the demographics. If you count the number of Arabs in Israel, in Gaza and in the West Bank, they are about equal to the number of Israelis, Jewish Israelis. And the birth rates among the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs is rising more rapidly, so the demographic lines are crossing in about 2010, 2011. That poses a very serious problem for Israel because if they can't get a two-state solution, and they've got a one-state solution, they want it to be a Jewish state, a position we support. But that will be difficult if they are in a minority. The second reason is technology. If there is an iron law of human history, it is that weapons are rapidly disseminated. And the invention of new weapons quickly spread around the world. Right now, what you have are rockets being disseminated, an estimated 30 to 40,000 rockets held by Hezbollah on Israel's northern border, Hamas having, I don't know the number, but a substantial number of rockets. And while the technology of particularly the Hamas rockets is crude, there is obviously an ongoing campaign to upgrade --"
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