This time people will flee

Kiryat Shmoneh and other communities in the north have been attacked many times before. And in the past, they stayed put. It wasn't that they weren't afraid. There were simpler reasons.

In the past the residents of the north had no place to flee to and no way to get out.

They were frequently members of clans, large families,

"everyone I know lives in Kiryat Shmoneh"

was a frequent statement. They were more dependent on public transportation and more apt to obey government orders.

Now it's different. Families have spread all over the country and even abroad. People have cars. And they also remember quite well, very well, how during the Gulf War fifteen years ago, residents of Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan fled their homes.

"Lamah n'hiyeh fryerim?"
"Why should we be suckers (fools)?"

Only residents of Gush Katif stayed home ignoring the frequent bombs. They were afraid to complain, since they knew that the government would consider it an excuse to drag them out of their homes even earlier.

And now the Arabs use Gush Katif as a launching pad to attack southern Israel.

None of this is a surprise. It's all the most elementary common sense.