I think people need to put things in perspective when judging in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Israel has a high tech organised army.

Hamas has much less advanced fighting force.

Israel does not rule out the possibility of a Palestine state.

Hamas wants to wipe out Israel.

Now, however true and currently relevant the greedy land-grab accusations of Israel is, I'm not exactly knowledgeable about that.

But the point is, had Hamas been the one able to inflict the current casualty toll of 1000 and suffer only 10 odd themselves, would they stop short of attempting to annihilate Israel?

I do hope the war can stop soon too. But as far as I can imagine the peace will return is that Hamas keeps to its side of the deal to stop firing rockets into Israel. The only reason we don't feel sympathetic to the Israelis on normal days is because Hamas does not have a precise system of firing their rockets and thus, it does not have a high kill rate. Furthermore, there are bunkers throughout Israel that serve to protect its citizens when the rockets do come.

Let me give an analogy of the situation. A soldier carries a rifle stands up against an untrained citizen wanting to shoot him. The citizen takes aim and sprays a hap-hazard volley of bullets around the soldier. Should the soldier return fire? If he does, will you think he is a jerk?