And here is Sol Salbe’s (of the Australian Jewish Democratic Society) very wise analysis:

The timing of Israel’s raid on Gaza, which set force the chain reaction leading to the likely unravelling of the tahadiyeh was sufficient to raise the eyebrows. Launching a raid four hours before the US Networks began their main coverage of the presidential election certainly appeared designed to avoid the media’s glare.

It is not as if the case for acting there and then was tight. Veteran Israeli journalist Menachem Ben, not exactly one of the usual suspects wrote in the right-wing Ma’ariv : “Somebody at the top of our defence establishment, certainly the Chief of Staff and Defence Minister, made a particularly bad error when they decided to attack that not-so-obvious tunnel in Gaza and kill six Palestinians in the process. That broke the blessed ceasefire. It broke it on the back of the residents of Sderot and Ashkelon and the whole Gaza-enveloping region.

“And what for? In order to destroy a tunnel that even the IDEF spokespeople contend that it was ‘apparently’ designed to kidnap an IDF soldier. Let’s assume that it was indeed the case. Was there no other way to deal with the estimated danger? Couldn’t for example have warned the Egyptian that the intention of the tunnel diggers are clear and if Hamas were not to take any action against, Israel would? Did you have to attack immediately? Kill immediately?”

Ben wasn’t the only Israeli to lament the “utter stupidity” of the move. Others were also horrified at the end of the ceasefire that has given both Israelis and Palestinians in the region, peace and quiet. But there was method to the madness and none explained it as clearly as Zvi Bar’el below. Israel did not want the ceasefire extended to the West Bank and it certainly did not want to see its ally, Palestinian President Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) politically undermined. No article is ever a must read, but this one comes close to essential reading to anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of the situation – Sol Salbe.]