Here we go again.

In the aftermath of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, the Palestinians have wasted little time in getting back to the business of terror.

In just the past four days, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed and killed a young Jewish yeshiva student in Jerusalem, an Israeli border policeman was stabbed in the throat in Hebron by a Palestinian attacker, two Qassam rockets were fired from northern Gaza at the Israeli town of Sderot, and a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up today at Beersheba’s bus station.

This chain of events, of course, comes as little surprise. For months, opponents of the Gaza withdrawal were warning that an Israeli retreat would only serve to whet the appetite of the terrorists, inspiring them to demand more, and more, and more.

And that is precisely what has occurred. Is it any wonder that senior Hamas bomb-maker Muhammad Deif took the unusual step the other day of releasing a video in which he said, “Today you leave Gaza in humiliation. But we promise that tomorrow, all of Palestine will turn into hell for you.”

It is time for Israeli policy to stop being guided by wishful thinking and by the fantasies of the left, and to start facing the reality that our foes can not be appeased, only defeated.