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Israel this week once again showed how bad it can be at public relations, or hasbarah.

Israel provided little rationale for Tuesday morning's bombing raid that resulted in the death of 14 civilians, including nine children. Officials deemed the raid a success because it eliminated Israel's most-wanted terrorist, Salah Shehada, commander of Hamas' military wing.

But this justification garnered heavy criticism from the United Nations, world leaders and even from President Bush.

What should Israel have done?

Good public relations would have dictated holding a press conference Tuesday morning in which Israeli leaders would have made these points:

*First and foremost, a sincere apology for the death of innocent people. Although Palestinian suicide bombers have killed innocent Israelis, Jews need to adopt a higher moral ground.

*Israel assassinated Shehada as part of its war on terrorism. He had masterminded the death of hundreds of Israelis and was allegedly organizing more major attacks against Israel.

*The United States would have killed innocent civilians as well if it resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.

*Shehada has been in hiding in Gaza and living among civilians who, he thought, would provide him human shields against an attack.

*Despite recent efforts at negotiating an end to the violence, attacks against Israelis would never stop as long as Shehada was alive.

*Even though Shehada's death might result in more terrorism, Hamas no longer has a leader with Shehada's planning and leadership skills.

Just imagine if Israeli officials issued statements like those.

We might have turned on CNN and other news outlets and seen clips of a press conference in which Israeli leaders presented their justification for the raid. Instead all we saw were bodies of innocent civilians being carried out of Gaza apartment buildings and mourning relatives.

There is no guarantee that such justification would have spared Israel from world criticism, but it would have gone a long way toward enhancing public understanding of this week's events.