It is true that one CANNOT fight hate with more hate or bullets. But what is the alternative? Sit down quietly and do nothing when your enemies rain rockets down on you? And when one does retaliate, one must not kill too many people? Hitler has shown that pacifism or appeasements only whets the appetite of the aggressor. The Jews learnt this lesson very well when they did not retaliate and foolishly trusted in the goodness of men(NAZIs) and ended up with 6 million dead in concentration camps.
However, it is strange that the when HAMAS ended the truce with rocket attacks killing JEWS, the condemnation from the world was not very loud and newspapers never splash large photos of those JEWS killed and relatives crying or parading their dead in processions.
Opening diplomatic talks with Hamas through proxies will help defuse the situation. Diplomacy is not appeasement because in the end, the brave thing to do is to look into your enemies in the eye, who are sitting across the table, and then talking openly about the situation.
I mean, did anyone accuse Reagan of being an appeaser when he met the Soviet President, Gorbachev in the 80s? Reagan knew that to defeat the Soviet Union, he couldn't use force of arms. So he talked to the Soviet Union, and behind the scenes, he twisted a lot of arms, using economical aid as bait.