Thank you for your detailed and thoughtful comment. I'm afraid I don't have any better ideas as to what Israel could do in such a situation. Sometimes the reality is such that you only have bad and worse options. For Israel, not responding with extreme force to protect its civilians is the worse option here.

Regarding Netanyahu and his coalition of the insane, I have even less use for them than many (most?). I've long held the opinion that he belongs in jail (for corruption) or at the very least in the dustbin of history (for aggravated incompetence).

When your enemy refuses to make peace despite your utmost efforts, what can you do? That's a genuine question I struggle with, not simply rhetoric. The one thing I'm certain Israel should not do (and many governments went the wrong way in this) is allow or even promote illegal treatment of Palestinians by settlers. The better path would be to find ways that make the lives of Palestinian civilians as easy and prosperous as possible, within the security constraints of protecting Israelis.