Thomas Friedman New York Times buys into Arab narrative

Friedman"Because the risks to Israel's legitimacy of another war in Gaza, Lebanon or the West Bank in which Israel could be forced to kill even more civilians to squash rocket
attacks launched from schoolyards by fighters who wear no uniforms will be
staggering."
Someone might say-He is right. And even if he isn't, how can his passionate and skilled analysis of the situation be considered anything other than an attempt at
helping Israel? "
Because smart people can still be very foolish and very harmful.

What is incredibly depressing is to read how Jews buy into the narrative of the Arabs. What will be Israel's price if it does not fight back hard and punish the murderers? Many more dead Jews. This battle of fighting armed combatants dressed as civilians and shooting missiles from schools is a battle the west will fight for 100 years.
Of course there will be more wars, sadly killing civilians, and even more as the Arabs perceive the breach in the walls more and more through BDS, aided and abetted by perhaps well meaning, naive Jews, they will realize there is no downside to any kind of provocation, missiles, terrorism. Israel basically has no friends left except the US Congress, some Jews and evangelical christians. What is Israel supposed to do? You think there is anything it can do, short of leaving town, that will appease Hamas, Hezbollah, Ira, Muslim brotherhood etc?
Pinhas zealotry is called for now. I know many of you think you help Israel but asking her to be nicer. It is a calamatous course. Iran will get their nukes, thanks to Obama,
terrorists will continue their terror in Gaza and West Bank, and the world, including many Jews will try and handcuff Israel in responding. I just pray every day, Israelis who live in the midst of that nightmare, and understand the reality better than a bunch of suburban rabbis, or even a NYT columnist who can live and come home to his comfy abode away from it, stay strong. Joe Klein in Time says the answer is for Israeli to be less macho. Leonard Fein blames Israel for losing Turkey in the Forward,, even though it is clear Turkey has been turning Islamic for a few years, It goes on and on.
Israeli commanders, Shermeister and Col. Bentzi Gruber, said after Gaza every effort was made to spare civilians, including dropping leaflets and sending telephoned warnings to thousands of Gazans of impending attacks. They say Hamas used schools, mosques and homes as weapons depots, rocket-launching grounds and hiding places for fighters, turning them into legitimate targets. Gruber said his force of reservists operated in a complex battlefield. He said almost every other house his forces entered in the northern town of Beit Lahiya had been booby-trapped. He acknowledged that there may have been errors of judgment. Nevertheless, "we made an enormous effort, including endangering myself and my soldiers, in order not to kill others," he said."
British Army Col. Richard Kemp, who commanded his country's forces in Afghanistan in 2003, During his 30 years in the British Army, in which he fought in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, . During the Gaza operation ten months ago, he asserted that the IDF was using all possible caution to avoid harming civilians.
Kemp also testified before the UN Human Rights Council on the Goldstone report, supporting the IDF. He told the special session: "Based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare ... Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes... More than anything, the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas' way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians ... Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets."