In his article published in the New York Times on Monday, October 30, American writer Thomas Friedman, who is close to US President Joe Biden, advises Israel to follow the Indian model in dealing with the Hamas movement, calling on Israel to be patient and think carefully about the consequences of any response or a hasty action against the incursion of Palestinian resistance fighters into its territory. He referred to the infiltration of 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba fighters into India and the killing of more than 160 people in Mumbai in November 2008. Friedman: Israel should have called its military operation in Gaza “Save Our Hostages”.

Friedman begins his article, for which he chose the title: “Please do not get lost inside Hamas’ tunnels.” Friedman called on Israel to be patient and carefully consider the consequences of any hasty reaction to the incursion of Palestinian resistance fighters into its territory, and the heavy costs that any retaliation could entail. 

“I watch the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza today and I think of one of the world leaders I admire most: Manmohan Singh,” he says. He was India’s prime minister in late November 2008, when 10 Pakistani jihadist militants from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which is widely believed to be linked to Pakistani military intelligence. They came to India and killed more than 160 people in Mumbai, including 61 people in two attacks. What was Singh’s military response to the events of September 11 in India? He did nothing.”

“Singh never retaliated militarily against the state of Pakistan or the Lashkar-e-Taiba camps in Pakistan. It was a remarkable act of restraint. What was the logic? In his book Options: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy, India’s then foreign minister, Shivshankar Menon, explained, the reason behind this, explaining these key points: “I myself pressed at the time for clear, immediate retaliation” against jihadi bases or against the ISI, “which was clearly complicit,” Menon wrote. “Doing so would have been emotionally satisfying.” "It goes some way towards erasing the shame of incompetence shown by the Indian police and security agencies."

In his comparison between New Delhi and Tel Aviv's handling of the two incidents, Friedman believes that it is useful to reflect on the contradiction between the two countries' responses to the "terrorist" Mumbai operation and what he described as the "massacre" carried out by Hamas.

He said that the narrative of the attack on Israel quickly changed and made Hamas fighters heroes in the eyes of some people. It also forced Israel's new Arab "allies" in the Abraham Accords to distance themselves from the "Jewish state."

The writer believes that it is almost certain that after Israel summons about 360,000 reserve soldiers, its economy will suffer from a recession and shrink by more than 10% on an annual basis during the last quarter of the year, if it takes months to uproot Hamas from Gaza as expected.

The article criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government for its haste in developing Benjamin's Plan B, which aims to "wipe Hamas from the face of the earth."

He explained that he closely followed former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's "unique" response to the "terrorist" attacks in Mumbai at the time. He said he immediately called for Israel's response to be goal-focused and thoughtful.

Friedman added to this by saying that Israel should have called its military operation in Gaza “Save Our Hostages,” focusing on arresting and killing the hostage takers, as he put it.

Friedman claims that the Israeli officials he spoke to told him that they knew two things for sure: that Hamas would not rule Gaza again, and that Israel would not rule Gaza after Hamas. They suggest they would establish an arrangement similar to what exists in parts of the West Bank today, where Palestinians in the enclave run daily life, while Israeli army and Shin Bet security teams provide power behind the scenes.

The American writer describes this plan as half-baked, because those Palestinians who will be recruited to implement it will be killed, as he claims, and that Israel will bear the costs of controlling Gaza and providing health care and education to its residents. Then, in his opinion, the cost of occupying Gaza could exhaust the Israeli army and economy for years to come.

He stresses that Israel does not have a viable plan to win or a leader who can overcome the pressures and complications of this crisis, adding that Israel must keep the door open for a truce for humanitarian reasons, and for an exchange of prisoners, which will also allow Israel to wait and think about the consequences of its “hasty” military operation in Gaza. And at the price you can pay in the long run.

Friedman concludes that this delay would also allow Gazans to evaluate what the Hamas attack in Israel did to their lives, their families, their homes, and their businesses.

Friedman ends his article by saying that Hamas has allocated "almost all of its resources to building attack tunnels. Please, Israel, do not waste those tunnels!"