I don't mean to wax paranoid here, but I really believe that many forces are working overtime to promote mistrust among groups in this country.
They want to foster hate, toward us, by us and among us. We have to be aware of that, even as we stand up for that moral high ground that Israel justifiably holds with regard to Hamas.
But just because Israel has the moral right to defend its population and disarm Hamas, a scorched-earth battle plan is not the best option. We know now, according to Israel, precisely where the Hamas headquarters is, and sure enough, it's under a hospital - and there's proof. I can imagine scenarios unfolding where Hamas's strategic centers can be taken without having to destroy everything else on the block. But it will take a careful balance of military wisdom and careful statecraft to get there.
And for the first time ever, we have reason to seriously doubt Israel's capacity to muster that wisdom and statecraft.
Here is where I add my final step in this recipe. Israel needs to replace a key ingredient in order for any of this to work: the Prime Minister. 80 percent of Israelis believe Netanyahu needs to take responsibility for Israel's worst calamity. He is not trusted by his own people, and his government is not trusted by Israel's allies.
When Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain after Dunkirk in 1940, the situation was similar. A debacle was behind them but the much bigger battle, the Battle of Britain, lay just ahead. The transition to Churchill could not have come at a more perilous time, and it was not inevitable. If you read the contemporaneous news coverage you can see how dramatic it was. Churchill had never run a government before. The deal was not long in the works. It just happened, because history demanded it. It's also noteworthy that Chamberlain was neither exiled nor purged. He remained in the war cabinet, which provided continuity. But he was no longer Prime Minister, which instilled in the country needed confidence. That is precisely what is needed now in Israel.
Very hard choices lie ahead, some of them military, some diplomatic and some involving the very nature of the state. If ever a true unity government were needed, it’s now, and that can't happen under current management. Most have believed that it is best to wait until after the war to deal with this government, but that was not necessary for Chamberlain and Churchill. Had they opted to wait, World War Two might have ended much sooner, but none of us would have been happy with the outcome.
Friedman, Ross and Kirby all propose pathways to future stability and a world where the residents of Sderot and Kiryat Shmoneh can return to their homes. But none of that can happen with this narrow government with Netanyahu at the helm. Having a war cabinet with Benny Ganz helps, but it is not enough.
Netanyahu always has loved to invoke the lessons of Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler at Munich. Maybe he now needs to emulate the former Prime Minister and seek a graceful exit. When only a fifth of your nation believes you are not responsible for the most epic failure in the country's history, what exactly are you waiting for? | 
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