As the Iraq conflict continues, the logic in the US looking for advice from people with experience in dealing with counter-insurgency work is obvious. Israel is a natural source of such expertise, and it’s one that the Pentagon should tap. Given the sensitivities of the region, it should do so, however, discreetly. Talking about it in public, as seems to have happened here, makes no sense at all. Equally, America needs to remember that while Israeli tactics have often been skilful and, in the context of an armed struggle, designed to minimize the loss of innocent life, some of them (specifically the demolition of housing as a reprisal) seem guaranteed to perpetuate the cycle of violence. The US must make sure that it borrows from the best, not the worst, of the Israeli approach.