After standing up to Goliath, has David become a bully?

The Jews have encountered and survived, with incredibly dignity and resilience, a gauntlet of oppressive forces: the pharaohs of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand’s Inquisition, the pogroms of the Russian Empire and the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi régime. Following the events of World War II, the Jews were given their own sovereign state carved from British-controlled Mandatory Palestine, where they could be safe.

In South Florida, a thriving Jewish community keeps strong ties to this State of Israel. Since the brutal murder of three Israeli teenagers at the hands of suspected Hamas militants, my Twitter and Facebook feeds have been flooded with students reposting articles that glorify the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) Gazan campaign and affirm Israel’s right to retaliate. Such materials have but spared the usual, overgeneralized polemics that demonize an entire nation of Palestinians into caricatures of blind hatred.

To clarify: Israel is a sovereign state. Therefore, it has every right to its self-defense. As President Obama pointed out, any country would agree if bombarded with missiles in their backyards.

Many Jewish-Americans and Israelis maintain that the IDF must forcefully intervene in Hamas-controlled Gaza to protect Israeli civilians from vengeful rocket barrages. Hamas, a terrorist organization by most international standards, has vocally called for the destruction of the State of Israel. Hamas, then, is the problem. Right?

Yes, but not entirely.

The Gazan conflict is not a simple case of Israeli good guys fighting the Palestinian bad guys. Of course, Hamas is a proven terrorist organization concerned more with rockets and missiles than the welfare of constituent Gazans. But terrorism is ultimately a matter of perspective: one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. And recent statistics published by Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem indicate that in the eyes of Palestinian civilians, the IDF are no saviors.

B’Tselem’s figures call into question the extent of “self-defense” in an Israeli context: surely, a euphemism. Vox’s Max Fisher did a wonderful job of interpreting B’Tselem’s data. To quote, crucially: “Since 2005, 23 out of 24 deaths have been Palestinian.” This finding is shocking considering Israelis outnumber Palestinians roughly two to one. Separate offices—both from the U.N.—estimate that in Gaza, civilian deaths, including children, account for more than 70 percent of all casualties. And prior to the Israeli ground invasions, which claimed several more lives, the respective death count for Palestinians and Israelis after 10 days of fighting was a lopsided 235 to one. The Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, cited such figures as rules of war—in contrast to clear U.N. legislation regarding civilian deaths.

However, the statistics do not tell the full story. Part of the reason why these figures are so high are because Hamas, which controls Gaza, fires rockets from schools and stadiums, forcing the IDF to also attack Hamas’ human shields: civilians. Also accounting for the remarkably low number of Israeli casualties is the new Iron Dome missile interception system, which has proven to be remarkably effective in defending Israeli cities.

Yet the disparity of deaths shows that the IDF ground invasion is an unnecessary exercise in disproportionate aggression, given the familiarities of the situation. Hamas are dangerous and cynical in their approach: by stocking their arsenal in mosques and hospitals and subjecting innocent Palestinians to harm’s way, Hamas have coldly gambled that a rising death count will result in increasing international condemnation of Israel. With Hamas’ trap set, the Israeli approach of fighting fire with fire has only burned Palestinian civilians.

Airstrikes, too, have proven a lethal alternative to engaging Hamas. While the IDF claims that it offers warnings for Gazans to evacuate, harrowing B’Tselem accounts show that in crowded urban areas, there is not enough space to avoid death from above. Nor is there enough time to evacuate between warnings, leaving a backdrop of rubble. In this cruel diorama are Palestinian parents, cradling their innocent children, all bloodied and horribly disfigured by IDF bombs.

In a conflict that brewed over the murder of teenagers, website Count the Kids (compiled from various sources, including B’Tselem) reports that in 2014, there have been 162 Palestinian children killed per two Israeli children. If these children are not terrorists or militants themselves, their deaths and the tragedy of the conflict as a whole raise an uncomfortable question: are Palestinian lives not as valuable as Israeli lives?

Unfortunately, this is not the first time such a question has been asked. The situation is farcically familiar, even if certain circumstances have changed since the last penetration into Gaza. For example, the State of Palestine is now a non-member observer state of the U.N., and Egypt has ousted the Hamas-friendly Mohamed Morsi (Hamas began as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood) from the presidency. In addition, Israeli settlers have continued to defy international law by colonizing the West Bank with impunity, which has hurt the process of achieving meaningful peace through a two-state solution. The U.S. diplomatic team, spearheaded by Secretary of State, John Kerry, has failed to reach any meaningful accords. And so once again, innocent Israelis and Palestinians have found themselves ensnared in a vicious loop.

With Hamas unwilling to back down or negotiate, and Palestinian leadership divided, Israel needs to act with proactivity and initiative in order to establish an agreeable legacy for the region—easier said than done. Instead of an unnecessary ground invasion or airstrikes that will only see a bloodbath of Palestinians before an inevitable status quo antebellum, Israel must focus on peaceful solutions. It needs to pursue a ceasefire, as each rocket fired and each Palestinian killed continually dwindles the status of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Abbas has been one of the more vocal advocates for a peaceful two-state solution, but has found his clout deflated in the midst of the conflict.

In order to curb Hamas’ deadly regional influence, newspaper Haaretz, in a series of editorials, notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must empower Mr. Abbas, who was already politically weakened when Israel failed to recognize his unity government. The issue of West Bank settlements, a source of chagrin for many Palestinians, has to be addressed as well. And Israel, which must shoulder some of the blame in the conflict, also needs to accept that its “cutting the grass” approach is ineffective for prioritizing military action over peace.

Israeli politics demands politicians who are willing to take bigger risks in the name of peace. Mr. Netanyahu, in an interview with The Atlantic, has admitted that he no longer believes in the two-state solution. Such defeatist rhetoric will do little to inspire any tangible efforts at making peace, and will only encourage more Gazan lawn mowing—and casualties.

Nevertheless, Israel cannot establish lasting peace on its own. It will need its neighbors Egypt and Jordan to step up and be prepared to share responsibilities in reaching a satisfactory solution, and one that reasonably contains the threat of radical Islamism. Israel must also be wary of other regional actors such as Turkey and Qatar, whose disillusionment with the new Egyptian government could jeopardize ceasefire talks. Should a two-state solution prove to be unfeasible, a three-state solution with Egypt and Jordan may prove to be a last hope.

Hope is running out for the Palestinians, whose disenchantment grows with the death tolls. The aging Mr. Abbas will not be permanently available, and as he and his colleagues fade behind the crescendo of rocket fire, former Princeton professor Daoud Kuttab points out that Israel will have to deal with a younger, potentially angrier generation of Palestinian politicians. This is a generation that will have grown up under military occupations and invasions, and that will carry their ancestors’ memories of 1948.

But until a satisfactory solution is achieved, innocent Israelis and Palestinians will find themselves surrounded by lethal rockets, gunfire and finger-pointing as Hamas provocateurs and hawkish Israeli forces duke it out in a dangerous civilian arena. The world will watch and wonder if this will not be the last time that Hamas fires rockets or that Israel incurs into Gaza. Without peace, disenfranchised Palestinians living in Israeli bantustans under Hamas’ terrorist rule will clench fists. With these clenched fists, Palestinians will throw stones at the physical and metaphorical walls that enclose them. Will the Palestinians go the way of the American Indian, who resisted encroaching, land-stealing colonists with stones, bows and arrows?

Last month, I tied three yellow ribbons around the trunk of the palm tree outside my home. Two weeks later, I removed them.

Last month, three Israeli teenagers went missing. Two weeks later, their bodies were found, bloody and abandoned.

Last month, Jews scattered across the world’s landscape adorned their homes with pieces of cloth, metaphorical symbols of support for the victims’ families and signs of solidarity with Israel. Two weeks later, we remain connected by a common thread: our culture, woven from the strands of our most precious values of respect, community and peace.

Respect is to be granted towards all people, Jewish or not, in order to initiate and preserve peace. The Torah teaches our people to “seek peace and pursue it,” and to extend “peace, peace to the distant and the close.” Abiding by these principles for centuries, Jewish people have taken the necessary measures in order to maintain tranquility and avoid conflict. Before entering the land of Israel and claiming their promised land, as depicted in the Torah, Joshua and the Israelite army offered peace with the Canaanites. In 2000, the Jews offered Palestine a state in more than 95 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The result? A violent intifada, or uprising that resulted in heavy civilian casualties on both sides.

Despite the Israeli people’s continual efforts for peace and constant strive for recognition, terrorist Palestinian regimes refuse to accept any and all negotiations. Hamas, the lead terrorist group, has released inflammatory propaganda videos making claims such as, “We love death more than you love life,” in order to impose psychological warfare on the Israelis. Unfortunately, these chilling threats have materialized into serious attacks and war crimes. Hamas have proven over time that there is nothing they won’t sacrifice, including their own children, in order to abolish the Israeli state. An organization whose motto encourages hate demonstrates no capacity for humanity and therefore, no prospect of peace.

Hamas justify its preemptive hate and tendency for violence with the claim that Israelis are unrightfully stealing Palestinian land. Before 1948, Palestinians occupied more than 90 percent of what is now Israel. On May 14 of that year, following the end of World War II, the U.N. authorized the Declaration of Israel’s Independence and the Plan for Palestine; these treaties recommended and established land for independent and separate Jewish and Arab states. On May 15, one day after the authorization of the declarations, five Arab nations attacked the newborn Jewish state of Israel. The conflict ended with an unforeseen victory for Israel and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Marked by fear, desperation and destruction, Palestinians fled or were forced to flee their homes. Today, UNRWA (United Nation’s Relief and Works Agency) estimates that five million Palestinian refugees, defined as persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period June 1 1946 to May 15 1948 and who lost both homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict, are eligible for UNRWA services.

Although refugees pose an important variable in the topic of Palestinian statehood, displacement is a consequence of war. In Israel’s relatively short history, it has faced armed challenges from surrounding, hostile Arab states. Israel, by fending off its neighboring aggressors in a series of wars, has justified its necessity and use of self-defense to survive in a volatile Middle East.

With the current conflict brewing between Israel and Hamas after last month’s tragedy, some sources have manipulated statistics in an attempt to portray Israel as the aggressor. However, the reason behind these devastating statistics is not cruelty on the part of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), but selfishness on the part of Hamas. Hamas-linked terrorists over the years have been caught firing rockets from schools, neighborhoods and hospitals. Hamas stations its military bases in civilian towns and amidst the community. This comes in addition to Hamas’ suicide bombing campaign (up until 2006).

Thus, when Israel retaliates to the Palestinian bombardment, the military is unable to avoid casualties despite the increasing care for the precision of their strikes. By dropping leaflets and issuing warnings prior to the attacks on Hamas militants, Israel attempts to limit the collateral damage. Additionally, the IDF has set up clinics by Gaza to tend for innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire.

Is the realization of such a threat a show of Israeli aggression or merely the necessity of self-defense?

Hamas’ tactics put a cruel spin on the numbers that would suggest otherwise. Statistics reported by B’Tselem, which Vox’s Max Fisher rely on, are misleading because they do not account for the perpetrators of the casualties. According to The Washington Examiner, between September 2000 and May 2014, 2,384 deaths on the Palestinian side were of “Palestinians who took part in the hostilities and were killed by Israeli security forces;” 683 were “Palestinians killed by Palestinians;” another 288 were Israeli-identified terrorists.

The solution to this conflict is not for Israel to lay down its arms and surrender to unreasonable aggression. Rather, a ceasefire should be mutually accepted and respected in order to create space for a negotiation that can result in a two-state solution where both Israeli and Palestinian nations can peacefully coexist.

Imagine that you are all alone, surrounded on all four sides by 22 people with vicious intentions. You try to appease the bullies, but they reject your negotiations. You offer your home, your money, your sympathy. They refuse. You stand still in your place, hoping they retreat. They encroach. All you want is to be left alone and all they want is to see you dead. Your only option of survival is to attack first and pray for victory. Do you take the punch?