Not bad.
People have commented that I need to learn to take "yes" for an answer. So I will make that effort here and do the minimum objecting to the piece.
But I must interject: What is your plan Mitchell?
You do a good job of telling everyone else what they are doing wrong and even a good job of trying to be balanced in doing so. But you propose no alternatives. As long as the rockets fly into Israeli civilian neighborhoods, the Israelis feel they must do something. How wrong are they in that conclusion? How many nations would do nothing?? Your beef seems to be concerned with the nature of the Israeli counter-measures. OK, lets, arguendo, assume that there is fault in the Israeli response. You are now Prime Minister of Israel with a mandate and 70% approval. What you do?? Talk to Hamas?? OK. That was fun. Now what?? Give Hamas their demands?? Your approval then drops to 7%. What's the fix??My suggestion is that the USA tell Egypt to take over (annex) Gaza, or their aid package goes to Israel. If they cooperate, the USA will bonus them with some light military equipment.
Problem solved. Then we could move onto some really important issues. Like fixing the US Judicial system.

It is reported by Prof. Bernard Lewis in "Semites and Anti-Semites" that three thousand, five hundred 'Palestinian' Arabs were murdered by militant Arab factions, betwen the years of 1918 and 1947. These were community leaders, educators and even some clerics.
There was never to be a peaceful solution. It is a fantacy. The politics of the reigon was simply too violent and oppressive. Plus, it utilized religion to indoctronate and control its subjects. For example, the al-Husseini family (Grand 'Mufti's from early 20th century until early 1950) were both royalty--in the sense that they were owners of vast amounts of Palestinian land and therefore were primal power brokers, and were also Muslim clerics-trained in Saudi Arabia. While people point to the secular nature of the Palestinian-Arab populations, this too was a partial fansasm, as Yasser Arafat was also 1/2 warrior and 1/2 cleric. His decision to hold Jerusalem as the 3rd most holy site in Islam helped sabotage the peace negotiations of 2,000 and indirectly led to (or cultivated) 9-11-2001. In reality, Jerusalem was abandoned as a holy place by the Islamic prophet Mohammed, when Mecca became known as the "Sacred Temple". The Dome of the Rock was a Catholic Church until 70 years after Mr. Mohammed's passing away. In the only reference to Jerusalem in the Qur'an it is called: "The Promised Land" and it appears in Surah 17 entitled: "Children of Israel". Yet, Mr. Arafat falaciously continued to assrt that the Dome and Mosque were designated as Muslim holy placed in the Qur'an, and that by law and custom, not one cyllable could be altered. Of course, their reference is impossible, given the time-lapse mentioned above. However, Arafat's position in reality was backwards, because it was he who had altered the scriptures for his own political benefit.
The Arabs went from being downtrodden, oppressed and poverty-stricken under Turkish rule, to being movie-stars in the 20th century oil-centric economy. This was far too much of a swing of extremes and their egos ran wild, especially their religious pride, which has controlled the mid-east situation for 90 years.
The Israelis are far from angels. I know a few I would like to slap around, including a retired general. But there is no moral equivilance between the sides.

I am not really sure what Mitchell is saying. He is speaking in parables. What exactly is his plan?? Does he support the patriotion of 5-million Arabs as Israeli citizens? Because that is what is being demanded by the Saudi Peace initiative. Short of that, this state of conflict is not likely to abate any time soon.
For the first and only time in the history of the world, refugees were given leave by the international community to pass their "refugee" status down through new generations. For the first and only time in the history of the world, the UNHCR has been politically blocked from re-settling these nationless people in normal quarters. While about 20-million Arabs were given citizenship in a variety of Euro nations, very few of them were Palestinian-Arabs.
Mitchell's pep talk does little to address these crimes against the Palestinians (both Arabs and Hebrews).