Let's leave aside the issue of whether or not Israel is our "friend" so that the isolationists here can't object. All it takes is just a smidgen of self-honesty and a cursory review of the events of the past year or so in that region to understand that Hamas started this fight, that their objectives are political and not military, and that they are demonstrably willing to heap up their own children dead in the streets as a strategy for victory.
It's like the kid who throws stones at you. Not all of them hit you, but some do and they hurt, so you tell him to stop or you're gonna pound him. This cycle continues for a year or so, your patience wears thin, and the next time he starts throwing stones, you start to whip his butt. While you're pounding him, he reaches over, grabs his little brother - a toddler - and uses him as a shield. Once you've hurt his little brother, he runs screaming to his parents who call the police and complain that you beat up a toddler. Everyone ignores the stones scattered about your lawn and the bruises on your body from those hurled projectiles and condemns you because you hit a toddler.
I have no respect for a people who would use their own kids as shields to hide them from their assailant, and I have even less respect for folks who witness such tactics and ignore them to vilify the other party.
