It is doubtful if there is another country in the world apart from Israel that has been struggling since its establishment - and in fact much earlier - with unceasing waves of terrorism whose purpose is to kill in its name with the aim of instilling terror and fear, disrupting our daily routine and undermining the foundations of our existence as a society and as a country.
Terrorism has accompanied us since we were born in our country, and is an integral part of the Jewish-Arab struggle for the Land of Israel.
As such it is here to stay and will unfortunately continue to cast a heavy shadow on our lives as long as this struggle does not reach a solution or a decision.
But in the course of 150 years of fighting terrorism, Zionism continued its journey from victory to victory, while terrorism failed to achieve its goals.
So in the 1930s of the last century during the Arab gangs of the days of the Great Arab Revolt, so in the War of Independence in 1948, so in front of the Fedayeen gangs in the 1950s and so in today's terrorism, culminating in the first and second intifadas.
By the way, within the State of Israel on the eve of the Six Day War, a decision was reached, because Israeli Arabs are now part of the fabric of life in the country and are hardly involved in terrorism.
Terrorism has been taking shape and unfolding form since it first raised its head, and in recent decades it has been the terrorism of suicide bombers, some of which are sent by terrorist organizations but some are individual terrorists, who are motivated by personal circumstances and usually do not share their intentions with anyone.
But they also know that their chances of getting out alive from an attack of their own making are not great.
Even shooting attacks or planting explosive devices no longer grant immunity to their perpetrators, because in view of the IDF's impressive intelligence and operational capability, every terrorist knows that at the end of the day he will be captured or eliminated during the IDF-led counter-terrorism operation.
And yet, in Palestinian society - a traditional and religious society, awash in incitement and saturated with violence, which has been in a violent struggle with us for generations - there are still terrorists who are ready to die, provided that they can kill Jews.
Faced with this reality, there are those who offer us the panacea of a death penalty law for terrorists.
The debate about the necessity and effectiveness of the law is as old as the days of the state, but the hand of those who opposed it and prevented its enactment always prevailed, and rightly so.
First of all, this is a slippery slope to be careful of, so as not to make executions routine.
After all, why settle for the death penalty for murderous terrorists, and not also for those who assisted them or knew about their intentions?
And why the death penalty only for acts of terrorism?
Does the murder of children or women, a horrifying phenomenon we have encountered within Israeli society in recent years, not justify the death penalty?
And what about a Jew convicted of terrorist activity?
But the reason why the law should be opposed lies in the fact that not only will it not prevent terrorism, but it may inflame it.
After all, the terrorists who carried out attacks in recent years, they and their senders, knew that they were mortal and that their end would come, and yet they set out to carry out an attack.
And apart from that, execution is not "done and done" - a long and complicated legal process is expected here, during which we will be exposed to international pressure, and we will even turn the terrorists into heroes in the eyes of the Palestinians and in the eyes of the world.
And what is more important - any execution will trigger revenge attacks and especially bargaining attacks.
The only reason for enacting such a law is to satisfy the natural and understandable desire for revenge, and a desire to calm the stormy spirits after every act of terrorism.
But calming spirits without the need for executions is exactly the role of responsible leadership, which sees our long-term interest as a society and as a country and does not seek headlines.
The strength of Zionism was always in restraint and judgment, even in the difficult times we knew, and in making decisions "from the head" and not "from the heart."
It was also our distinct advantage over our enemies, and we should continue to protect that.
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