When the war Cabinet of the most right-wing government in all of Israel's history met on the evening of Aug. 9, only one minister supported an extensive military operation in the Gaza Strip. That was Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman, and even he — it is thought — did so mainly as a matter of protocol, because he had no choice politically. Liberman knew that he would remain conspicuously isolated on this issue, so he allowed himself to push for a military operation, when even ministers on the far right — Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked — agreed that it did not stand a chance.
It was one of those rare occasions in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not align himself with his right-wing electoral base. Instead he and his Cabinet decided not to order the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to launch a wide-scale operation in Gaza. With the backing of the defense establishment and most of his ministers, he chose to wait until midnight, when an official cease-fire was scheduled to go into effect. Meanwhile, Hamas was sending messages through Egypt, as well as through UN emissary Nickolay Mladenov, that the current round of hostilities had already worn itself out, and that it had no interest in any further escalation. That was how several “minor” rounds of hostilities began and ended over the past few weeks. Both parties would engage in fairly tame exchanges and then pull back at the very last minute, before the situation deteriorated into a full-blown campaign.
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