I lived in Brighton for most of my adult life and emigrated to Israel three years ago with my family.

We live in Eilat on the shores of the Red Sea, five minutes from the port of Aqaba in Jordan and another five minutes the other way from Taba in Egypt.

On a good day you can even see Saudi Arabia. There are always security alerts and every house in our country has a secure room in case of attack from outside Israel, be it from Katusha or Kassam rockets or air raids.

Nearly 2,000 rockets have been fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon during the past eight days. We do not occupy any Lebanese territory and yet, for the past six years, Hezbollah have regularly fired rockets, shelled our northern towns and tried to kidnap our soldiers.

We pulled out of the whole of Gaza last year because we want to live in peace. Yet, since we left and since Hamas was voted into power, we have had more rockets fired into Israel than for a decade or more.

Rather than talk about disproportionate reactions, people need to ask themselves why this is happening.

The reason is simple. Hamas and Hezbollah refuse to recognise the state of Israel's right to exist so, in their eyes, there is no innocent Israeli.

This is why restaurants, buses, shops and other areas where civilians congregate are targeted by suicide bombers.

Is there any country that, if it was invaded by a foreign force, its soldiers kidnapped or shot dead, would not react in the same way?

People say we should sit down and talk with these militants.

If I am in a room with another man who has a gun pointed at my head, what am I negotiating about?

Whether I live or die? This is why we have to act. We only want to live in peace. It is a pity the others don't.

-Andrew Lerner, Eilat, Israel