Israel is not a single entity but a collection of collections who do not agree with each other. Just like any country you will find everything there. The problem is always the militants (e.g. IDF, Hamas in this case) and the dominant minority of people yielding authority over violence. The rest of the people are just that: people. With different thoughts, aspirations, suffering and preconceptions. Just like all of us here. Therefore, there is no “One Israel” that wants us to believe something specific. Depends on who you talk to.
Surely their perspective was vastly different than ours. This attempt was likely reasonable at its time in 1948, when Israel was hardly a state. Hindsight is always different from actual sight.