Unlike in 2006, when the post-war talk all centered around Hizballah’s performance and the IDF’s poor showing, the talk this time around is about the ethics of Israel’s assault and the way in which the operation was conducted. The good news from Israel’s perspective is that even the most hardened Hamas supporter would have a very tough time declaring victory. It appears as if even the best units from Hamas were rolled up with little difficulty, and though I am not in favor of using body counts to gauge operational excellence, it has to be said that Israel inflicted a lot of pain on Hamas with very few casualties of their own.
I don’t know if this is really over yet. I wonder if Israel’s unilateral ceasefire had something to do with an upcoming change in administration in America. They may have felt like they had a deadline to meet. Now if Hamas starts firing again, they can tell Obama they would have liked to have stopped but Hamas would not let them.