I’ve expressed my views on this before:
How can anyone in the civilized West be sympathetic with Hamas’ cause? I’m not. The civilian voters in Gaza made a big mistake voting for Hamas. They were voting for confrontation and hatred and death and suicide. Democracy is a responsibilty. Voting is a responsibility. Voters will get what they elect.
Of course there are also extremists on the Israeli side. An example are fanatic ultraorthodox Jews and settlers preaching hatred, and there are terrorists like Baruch Goldstein, an American born Israeli physician who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in the city of Hebron, killing 29 Muslims at prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque within the Cave of the Patriarchs, and wounding another 150 in a shooting attack.
But I think we are talking about far less than 10% of the Israeli population, who engage in this kind of extreme thinking and hatred. Hamas was elected by more than 50% of the Palestinian people. The really sad thing is that actually a majority democratically elected terrorists. Even Hitler only got 43.9 %. Therefore I’m always telling people, democracy is not only a gift but also a responsibility. Not voting is irresponsible behavior. Voting for extremist parties is irresponsible behavior. The majority of the people in Gaza is guilty of that. The Israeli voters should also not vote for extremist parties.
Like I said earlier, this still means that Israel has to be more creative to allow the moderate Palestinians to live in peace and prosperity. At some point the circle of violence has to be replaced by something more intelligent. In Europe the Germans and the French killed each other for centuries and there are examples of other countries. Today there are regular student exchanges. People fall in love with each other, have parties together, innovate together, use the same currency and so forth.
Daniel Barenboim came to fame as a pianist but now is as well-known as a conductor, and for his work with an orchestra of young Arab and Jewish musicians, based in Seville, Spain, called the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he co-founded with the late Palestinian-American intellectual and activist Edward Said, whom Barenboim called his best friend. Barenboim has also been an outspoken critic of the Israeli settlements. (from Wikipedia)
We need more ideas like that in my opinion. Weapons alone won’t solve all the problems in the Middle East. You can’t order people at gunpoint to create a democracy. We need human imagination and innovation to solve the conflict. We need to try new things.