Gil Eyal: "I want to make sure everyone knows - Israel is committed to peace"

I'm an Israeli journalist. I follow your news closely. I feel that Israel is often misrepresented. I want to make sure everyone knows: Israel is committed to peace. All we want is to live quietly. In the following weeks, 3 suicide bombers have blown themselves up 10 minutes away from my home.

This is no way to live. We are fearful of leaving our homes. Chairman Arafat doesn't want peace. President Barak was willing to give him everything, including withdrawal from 95% of the territories. He wouldn't accept it!

We're aware that Israel has to change certain things, and are willing to pay a heavy price for peace. But do you expect us to just sit around and let people explode in our cities? What can we do? Even the Saudi offer includes the right of millions of Palestinians to come live in our towns. We cannot accept that. Imagine that the peace isn't for real? They would be living with us, and blowing up in our faces. We can't risk that. It would mean our annihilation.

We don't care about inner state politics. We just want to live our lives quietly. Someone has to force the Palestinians into a real cease fire, and since no one has, we have to.

Gil Eyal, Israel