I think the best quote I have heard on how we should be operating in Iraq is from the USMC Commanders in southern Iraq: "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" (or "Play ball with us, or we will stick the bat up your @#%" if you prefer).
As long as anyone is willing to cooperate and live by the rules, we will help and protect them, but the minute you step over the line, you are toast. As long as we hold true to this and hang in the fight, I think we can convert the vast majority of the population to our side and make this work.
Israel is involved in a life or death struggle with a desperate group of people who have been sold out by almost everyone and who are ruled by morons who only know how to terrorise and can't do things any other way (witness Arafat's refusal to accept Israel's offers' even thought he was to get almost everything he wanted).
Israel may be guilty of using only military force to achieve their strategic goals, but I can't tell what other tools they are using. Certainly they do not appear to be using other methods, but I can't tell from here for sure.