I was quite surprised to find commenters on another blog complaining that the war in Gaza was "ended too soon" and blaming all the wrong people for causing the premature end.
Spare me. It was clear from the beginning that the war in Gaza was just a pre-elections stunt to bolster the deservedly-sagging fortunes of the main ruling parties.
It was spelled out here, in black and white:
Israel's attack on Gaza -- just a political stunt?
Here are the main points:
4) ...it is obvious that the current attacks are a pre-election ploy to help Tzippi Livni's image ("she's not just a nice Jewish girl, she can lead Israel in war) and Ehud Barak's ("he can fight and lead, unlike the previous Defense Minister, Amir Peretz").
5) Since PM Olmert, Livni and Barak still can't re-invade Gaza since that would be admitting guilt, they won't unless it is in their short-term political interests or unless they lose control of the situation.
6) Therefore they will stop attacking Gaza the second their short-term political aims have been accomplished; and
7) Therefore the current round of fighting is actually pointless and will change nothing at the cost of lots of bloodshed on both sides.
I hate it when I am right.
Fortunately, the ploy has failed and the way-too-little, way-too-late war has not helped Barak much and may have backfired for Livni.
What is good news is that the war did a much better job of exposing the truth of a host of confirmed predictions, such as that
Leaving Gaza is a Historic Mistake,
Disengagement will lead to Terror and more correct predictions
here.
It was truly a pleasure to watch the same politicians who forced us out of Gaza in the first place explaining that they were retaliating for the resulting missile attacks which they have been studiously ignoring for years.
