In early September 2008, in my capacity as the head of the Sderot Media Center, I was invited to take part in a press conference in the Norwegian capitol of Oslo, together with the Israeli Ambassador to Oslo, members of the Norwegian media and members of the Norwegian Parliament. The title of the press conference was: "Iran: At

When PR firms advocate this Israeli government policy it works against the interests of Israeli society.

Sderot's Back Door."

It was at that Oslo press conference that the "rocket reality" was presented before Norwegians for the first time, showing the western Negev region as the only place in the Western world where rockets and missiles are fired at citizens on almost a daily basis. Of these attacks, 97% are launched by Palestinian militias from the convenient cover of civilian homes in Gaza. Their weapons come directly from Iran, with their delivery to Gaza facilitated by Syria and Egypt. This is how Hamas became Tehran's "third arm," after Hizbullah in Lebanon.

While Norwegian parliament members showed sympathy and said that they more clearly understood Sderot and Gaza, they also rationalized the Gaza rocket reality with the commonly held illusion that "if the Palestinians would be able to have their own independent state - in the West Bank and Gaza - this would bring peace and security to both sides and the firing on Israel would stop."

In other words, firing missiles towards Israel is justified because of the lack of a Palestinian state, since the West Bank is still "occupied". From an Israeli perspective, then, promoting the "two-state solution" plays into their hands and gives Europeans and their parliamentarians a way to justify ongoing rocket fire towards Israel. This also gives nations around the world a justification to continue to aid the Palestinian Authority, which now receives the largest proportionate aid compared with any people of a similar sized population.

Indeed, the Norwegian government provided 100 million dollars to the PA over the past year, even after it was proven that much of this budget reaches the hands of Hamas, which openly uses these allocations to finance terrorism.

When PR firms that represent the Israeli government's policy approach the international media with the claim that Israel must support the "two-state solution," this gives Hamas and all the Palestinian terror networks the legitimacy that they need to continue their operations against Israeli civilians. In other words, supporting the two-state solution supports the financing of terror. Therefore, when PR firms advocate this Israeli government policy it works against the interests of Israeli society and certainly against the people of Sderot and the western Negev.

In fact, the "two-state solution" is mistakenly used by Israel's advocates to justify Israel's approach to peace - pursued even under fire as a political solution. But when Israel's advocates support a two-state solution while Sderot and the western Negev remain under constant missile threat - especially after Israel pulled out all Jewish communities and Israeli army bases from the Gaza Strip in August 2005 - they are simply ignoring the fact that 7,000 missiles have been fired towards Israel from the de facto Palestinian state spawned in Gaza over the past three years.

That is what a two-state solution means - giving Israel's enemies a convenient base from where they can terrorize Israel's civilian population, in defiance of international law. The Western world's media, and even the Israeli media, refer to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, taken by Israel in 1967, as the territories that are in dispute, while Hamas, all of the other Palestinian terror groups and the Palestinian Authority itself define Sderot and the western Negev as "occupied territory" as well. They do not recognize the territory that Israel acquired in 1948, an integral part of the sovereign state of Israel.

In the words of the press statement that Hamas issued on the November 26, 2006, the day before the last ceasefire commenced (during that ceasefire, which lasted for six months, more than 300 missiles were fired towards Israel): "We will not stop firing on the Zionist settlement Sderot until the last citizen of Sderot leaves."

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority's 'Palestine Map', which can be purchased in any PA office, replaces Sderot with pre-1948 Najd, Ashkelon is replaced by al-Majdal, and Ashdod is replaced by Isdod.

The fact is that when Israel was established, and war was forced upon it, territories were taken by Israel in the Israel War of Independence. The Palestinian "right of return" refers to the return of Palestinian refugees to the territories of 1948. Meanwhile, the PA schools books show no rights for Jews living in the land of Israel, no mention of the history of the Jews in the land of Israel.

These are the basics of the conflict which need to be dealt with. Questions need to be raised, followed by their answers. The basics that need to be taught, first of all to Israeli society, the foreign press, parliament members, government officials and world public opinion.

These are the basics of the conflict which need to be dealt with.

By what right was the State of Israel established? What were the historical and legal rights of the Jewish people to the land of Israel? And what has the Palestinians refugee problem persisted, like no other in the world?

It is the responsibility of anyone who speaks for Israel to emphasize that during the late 1940s, more than 40 million refuges around the world were resettled, except for one people. They remain defined as refugees, wallowing 60 years later in 59 UNRWA refugee camps, financed by 400 million dollars contributed by nations of the world to nurture the promise of the "right of return" to Arab neighborhoods and Arab villages from 1948 that no longer exist. The Palestinian propaganda line of their "inalienable right of return" remains un-addressed and, for the most part, recognized by every state in the world, which blindly vote for annual UN resolutions that support this specious premise.

While millions of dollars are spent to find the best way to 'please' the American public with matters of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the basics of the conflicts are not being questioned.

No nation in the world would tolerate even one rocket being launched towards its territory; yet, that is what Israel is asked to accept as an integral part of its existence, since the supposed root of the problem is that the Palestinian Arab people do not have a state of their own. If Israel's advocates were to make things more understood, we would be able to tell the world that the Arab League and its Palestinian terror clients are continuing the war to obliterate Israel that they declared in 1948.

The current "ceasefire" with the Palestinian regime in Gaza is scheduled to end on December 19. After that, everyone expects the Palestinians to resume their attacks, in order to "liberate" the rest of Palestine - not to facilitate a two-state solution.