The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how it is approached by our nation's leaders shows how difficult it can be for democratic governments to do the "right" thing towards addressing it.

In other words, it's much easier to critique their actions from outside of the process than it is to direct the process from an elected position of power I think.

I think that the elected officials have less leeway than many people think. Needless to say, I'm not "happy" with the way any side is reacting.

@GreenFire True. Furthermore, expecting no retaliation makes little sense. The hurt would just keep coming. What did people expect Israel to do? I see a lot of condemnation, but no answers.

@AlliFlowers
I think that there would be a better chance to "destroy" Hamas by not retaliating the way they are and to demonize them in the court of public opinion while taking a "higher road" approach, but like I said in democracies the "best" approach may not always be available.

Of course, Bibi, is a particular case, but I think history shows that our response to 9/11 was not the "best" approach for example.

@GreenFire The problem is, Hamas reaches its goal of genocide if we wait for this to play out in the court of public opinion.