I read Tom Friedman after reading Mr. Halevi's column in the NYT and I think, yes, Hamas needs to be crushed, but the IDF cannot do it all by itself. Another part of the equation must be a mini-Marshall Plan for Gaza, Judea and Samaria which should probably include Israeli Arabs. I suspect a part of this needs to be vetting of 'educational' materials on both sides in which UNRWA should probably have no part!

Another thing that must be done, and every Israeli, Jewish, Arab, Druze, 'beauteous Circassian' and others, has a part in this. Hamas and Bibi keeping each other in power has to go below the neck for all Israelis in order to bring forth a government of national reconciliation.

Both Jew and Arab communities have 'shadows' darkening their outlooks. With Jews it's the memory of the 1930s when the 'civilized' world was so ready to have them murdered and, thus, fueling paranoia about anything that might endanger the security of Israel as the Jews' refuge. For the Arabs, the shadow looks like Bibi's governments acting increasingly like a nauseatingly typical 'occupier' and giving the lie to Israeli democracy and humaneness.

Both need to be heard by the other. Both need to remember that both sides have two ears and one mouth and consider the probability that God wants us to talk and listen in just that proportion. We need more of such an outlook here, too, between our respective racial and ethnic communities.