There are plenty of people who acknowledge that shooting rockets accomplishes fuck-all for Palestinians, but point out that doing anything else accomplishes fuck-all, as well.

During the current campaign by Israel, more Israelis have died than in the past year from attacks by Hamas. In terms of keeping Israelis safe, the campaign of defense has not worked. Furthermore, the extremely troubling civilian-to-militant death ratio, as acknowledged by the IDF, is seriously wearing away Israeli support and sympathy; and Israel needs support, and sympathy.

Finally, Hamas’s eliminationist rhetoric is contemptible and horrific, but we are now seeing the same rhetoric on the Israeli side, with the difference being that the Israelis are actually in a position to act on it.

One can completely acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself against attack and still question their method of doing it, whether it is actually making Israel safer, and point out that the frankly insane rhetoric coming from the Israeli right-wing is making ordinary Palestinians think that the peace process has no chance whatsoever.