Is Israel's invasion of Gaza good for their interests?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/31/sean-hannity-russell-brand-response-geraldo_n_5637081.html

This is the only time I'll be referencing a Hannity video. :) When even the united front of FNC is fraying over Israel's conduct in Gaza, you know the conflict has turned a page. Geraldo, a self-proclaimed Zionist who "would die for Israel" and apparently has a Star of David tattoo, said that the excessive carnage caused by the IDF is counter-productive to the interests of the Jewish State. It's increasing anti-Semitism (or at least reducing support for Israel), and not getting any closer to their stated goal of disarming/destroying Hamas.

Israel has air superiority. Why can't they have gunships and drones circling 24-7 to shoot at potential missile sites BEFORE they launch? Returning fire on a site where fighters may have already vacated seems stupid - especially when that site is a humanitarian one. And shelling is the worst military response - lower accuracy and higher chance of collateral damage. That is the lazy man's approach (which also shows a lack of caring, especially when they have other options at their disposal). Bullets may also hit the wrong people, but at least it won't level buildings and crush kids. I am not sure if Hamas has surface-to-air missiles, but it seems to me that Israel is not making all reasonable efforts to minimize risk to noncombatants. This is possibly due to the perception among some in Israel that all Gazans are fair game because they dislike Israel and tolerate/support Hamas.  

But since the Torah gets invoked from time to time on this issue, take a look at Genesis 18. God would even spare all of Sodom if he could find 10 innocents living among the wicked. I am not a Bible expert, and it seems that Sodom got wiped out by fire and brimstone later (maybe no innocents were found? :P), but I think there are at least 10 innocents among the slain in Gaza. I wonder what the IDF rabbis would say to that. And Abraham is the PATRIARCH of the Jews, not some peacenik or Israel hater.

Abraham pleads for Sodom:

16 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him." 20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know." 22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" 26 The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake." 27 Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?" "If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it." 29 Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?" He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it." 30 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?" He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there." 31 Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?" He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it." 32 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?" He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it." 33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

"A War Worth Fighting"

http://www.newsweek.com/id/141501?tid=relatedcl

Dear Newsweek,

In the recent article "A War Worth Fighting," I was bothered by Christopher Hitchens' side comment that after the Allies discovered the horrors of the Final Solution, it somehow retroactively justified their carpet-bombing of German cities. I for one still believe in "The Good German", and do question the wisdom and morality of such a policy, where innocent Germans who may have even been opposed to Hitler's wartime leadership were indiscriminately made to suffer, even though they played no active role in the Holocaust apart from voting the Nazis to power in 1933. The Nazis won but only gained 49% of that vote, so clearly there were plenty of Germans who disagreed with Hitler. So in no way could that result be construed as a nationwide endorsement of the secretive Final Solution that was to come a decade later. It is possible that many German civilians were cruel to Jews and other persecuted peoples, but the punishment for bigotry is not murder.

I suppose some Allies felt that the Germans deserved to see their cities burn after the Blitzing of England and atrocities on the Eastern Front. But American journalist Oswald Garrison Villard said, "What was criminal in Coventry, Rotterdam, Warsaw, and London has now become heroic first in Dresden and now in Tokyo." So not only was the hypocritical bombing of German civilians excessive and irrelevant as punishment for the Holocaust, it also made the targeting of population centers during wartime more "acceptable", especially for the US against Imperial Japan (at least 500,000 dead). Horrible barbarism by the Axis and Allies during WWII probably opened the door for future wartime atrocities against civilians during the Cold War, and more recently, in the Balkans and Iraq.

http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2414

Also I thought this Newsweek article on Churchill, Chamberlain, and the political myths of appeasement/confrontation was interesting:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/141502