I'm sorry your friend was killed, Meyer--another brutal and senseless death from this Axis of Evil.
No one ever holds the Palestinians responsible for the woes they bring on themselves through their self-destructive choices of leadership. Gaza is the worst example:
Israel handed Gaza over to the Palestinian Authority. in 2006, and removed 9,000 Jewish settlers. Within days, the Palestinians held a free election--they ousted the Palestinian Authority and voted in Hamas, because Hamas, in its charter, pledges to destroy Israel. Hamas immediately fired ~7,000 rockets at Israel, dug tunnels to mount lethal raids on civilians, and terrorized their own population. They fired rockets and stored arms in mosques, schools and hospitals, daring Israel to attack them. Did the Palestinians who voted them in and cheered them on believe that Israel wouldn't protect its own citizens--and that ordinary Palestinians would bear the brunt of Israel's retaliatory attacks?
The only use Hamas has for their own people is as dead martyrs, so they can blitz the world's media with videos and photos of wailing, black-clad women surrounded by rubble. Even now, they're ordering their people not to leave the war zone for safety--they want more death and destruction to blame on Israel.
Because the militants don't really want to see the war and violence to end. If anything, they wanna ramp it up and create more tension through the years. It fits their demented narrative and ultimate game plan, to destroy Israel. And they hate when they see olive branches being extended to Israel by fellow muslim countries.
