Nahum Barnea in Yediot Ahronoth, Remember 2006

... I would like to believe that Barak is talking about the fighting lasting a long time only in order to convince Hamas that Israel did not embark on this operation holding a stopwatch. The more Hamas is convinced that Israel has no time limitations, the quicker it will be to ask for a cease-fire. Declarations about the operation continuing are psychological warfare.

The problem is that politicians tend to forget who they’re trying to trick, the enemy or their people. What begins as a deception ruse for the enemy ends with self-deception. As the chairman of the Labor Party, the last thing that Barak wants are elections on their set date. ...When Menahem Begin ordered the Iraqi nuclear reactor bombed in 1981 what he wanted, firstly, was to destroy the nuclear threat against Israel. He also wanted to save himself in the elections. Two problems were solved with one military blow.

We cannot but help be suspicious. ... There does not appear to be any way to separate this operation from the elections. When the Knesset convened yesterday to discuss the operation, in the middle of the election recess, Ehud Olmert decided to boycott it: Olmert is not running for anything except for the mark he leaves behind when he goes. Netanyahu, Livni and Barak insisted on their right to speak. The Arab MKs insisted on their right to heckle, to be called to order and to be entitled to be kicked out of the hall. Each politician and his rights, each politician and his voters. Military operations were always part of the political game, but this time the politician’s breathing is particularly heavy.

With all the enthusiasm over the black smoke forming over Gaza, they tend to forget the operation’s goal: Forcing Hamas to agree to a cease-fire on terms that Israel is willing to meet. That is the goal that Olmert, Livni and Barak and the overwhelming majority of Israelis agree on: Not occupation and not toppling. The moment that Hamas agrees to a cease-fire, the operation is supposed to end. This is also a lesson that should have been learned from the mistakes of 2006: In war, you have to know how to end on time.