ideas?

Working on a bulletin article for shul in NY. Here's what I have so far:

I’m sitting on my couch in Jerusalem, watching the sixth season of the West Wing, where the writers solved the conflict in the Middle East in just a couple episodes. Unfortunately, real life is not so easy. For the last two weeks, Israel has been fighting Hamas in Gaza. The Israeli Defense Force has been working to stop Hamas from firing rockets at Sderot, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beer Sheva and all of the other areas around Gaza. They began after the “cease fire” ended. For six months, Israel has not responded to the rockets and missiles that Hamas fired in increasing numbers as the “cease fire” was winding down. Multiple times a day, residents in Sderot, Ashdod, Beer Sheva, race to bomb shelters. Online are videos of children running from the playground to a bomb shelter. They literally must run for the lives multiple times a day. What must that be like for a child? What goes on in a child's psyche who must endure this day in and day out for weeks, months, years? What is there understanding of danger? of the value of life? of the joy of life?

See http://www.sderotmedia.com/

In the first chapter of the book of Exodus, we read "⁸ A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. ⁹ And he said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. ¹⁰ Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground."
We see that with a new king, who did not know the people individually, who knew them only as a faceless mass, they were scary; they were a threat; they were a potential enemy. When Pharaoh knew Joseph, he knew that he had a partner in peace; he knew the potential good that could come from cooperation.

Right now, we are lacking those faces. Hamas does not see the faces of the children whose lives they shatter. They do not see Israelis as men, women, and children, but see all as the enemy. The IDF, even as it works to avoid civilian casualties, to prevent "collateral damage," sees only the masks of Hamas' terrorists and not the faces behind them. How can we make peace when the other wants only to destroy us? How can we find the faces and the partners when the other is not willing to see ours?

These are not easy questions. They will not be solved today or tomorrow. We know that many other peoples and nations have fought wars and made peace, have been mortal enemies and now work in cooperation. Godwilling we may join them at some point soon. Shalom, Salaam, please.