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Actually, I disagree. The best response is not waiting for the IDF to respond. The best, the fastest response is a *local* response.

For example, look at the city of Sderot, a frequent target of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. Instead of them waiting for the IDF to show up, what if they instead bought themselves a 105mm Howitzer, and plenty ammo, and gave a tit-for-tat response for every rocket fired at them?

Importantly, this wouldn’t be called “counter battery fire”, even though that is what it was. Instead, they could play the cynical game the international community plays and say that they are just “trying to shoot down the incoming rockets”.

I know that this is both cynical and sarcastic, but it has a good reason. International law permits self defense, and generally holds blameless those “defending” themselves against enemy weapons. This avoids the hand wringing that they are targeting civilians from where the rockets are launched.

It turns any Palestinians hit by the counter battery fire from “victims” to “unfortunate accidents”, for which the citizens of Sderot and Israel is blameless.

And since the international community itself is utterly cynical and hypocritical, this turns their forked tongues back on themselves.

Plus, if the citizens of Sderot erect a 100 or so foot tall observation tower, they can respond so quickly with a 105mm howitzer as to make the rocketeers teeth rattle at best.

So why wait? Act now. Don’t wait for the IDF to do so.