Size matters, at least in any discussion you want to have about Israel. In fact, you can't understand anything about the region appropriately without considering it.

Israel encompasses a total of 8,019 square miles. If you combined Harrison County with nine nearby East Texas counties (Panola, Rusk, Nacogdoches, Cherokee, Gregg, Cass, Marion, Upshur and Smith), then threw in Caddo Parish for good measure you would have a plot of land that is almost 10 percent larger than the whole of Israel.

The further two points of that area, say, from Western Smith County to Eastern Caddo Parish, will take you about 90 minutes, maybe a bit more, to traverse at the speed limit. North and south at its furthest points would probably take you a little longer than that. You had better give yourself two hours to make the trip.

If you are a county road commissioner in East Texas, that's a pretty large area. If you are defense minister for the nation of Israel, it's tiny.

If they start firing missiles at Marshall from Tyler, you'll want to take cover fast. Likewise, it won't take but a few minutes for jets from Marshall to be strafing Tyler.

Of course Israel is elongated north and south, so making the drive from east to west would take mere minutes, while making the trip north to south would take several hours.

This geographic fact is important because on Israel's west is the deep blue sea. On the east is a grouping of enemies who would all like to see Israelis driven into the sea.

They've tried to do that a number of times and if you've never read a history of just how the Jewish nation came to be you should do so, even a fictionalized account such as Leon Uris', "Exodus" is fascinating.

But the truth is even more astounding than any fiction can make it. No one could have guessed that the Jews, many who had survived concentration camps, could have won the battle.

But they did.

Israel lives with daily realities that would leave most Americans in a perpetual state of fear. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were horrific, to be sure, but you cannot even begin to compare the danger the United States faces from terrorism when compared to that Israel faces. The two are not even close.

This is why I am always amazed when people are shocked at the way Israel responds when that nation is attacked. Well, I'm actually surprised, too \— surprised that Israel isn't even more aggressive and violent. I can guarantee you that the United States, in the same situation, would react more vigorously. Almost every nation would do the same, despite how much they officially criticize Israel.

I do feel for the Palestinian people, many of whom are guilty of nothing more than listening too closely to their religious leaders or being duped into supporting the wrong candidate.

But that is the history of despotism around the world. The leaders never pay the price, it is those who follow, most of the time unwillingly.

But dupes can kill just as well as those who mastermind terrorist plots. And those who follow unwillingly have made a choice, even if they were given little chance. These people, the ones stuck in the middle, are victims just as much as the ones killed in terrorism.

And yet, should Israel \— should the United States \— allow innocent people in our countries to die to save the lives of those who are used by terrorists to kill us? I don't think so.

The only way out is peace, something that terrorists don't seem to want to accept. For us in the west, this is difficult to comprehend. Why would someone literally chose war over peace, death over life, when there are alternatives?

It's really unexplainable. When I read what is written and said by the terrorists, it is nothing more than high-sounding muck, just words and no substance. Unfortunately, people are willing to die for that muck.

And as long as they are, tiny Israel is going to have to be supremely vigilant in protecting itself. Perhaps it does go overboard occasionally, but that is only because the entire ship of state is in perpetual danger of being sunk.