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Despite my own strongly-voiced-here sentiments, I will give Bibi this much, that Hamas has lost face by not getting more than a fraction of their demands and still agreeing to a cease fire, and losing face can be fatal in the Arab world.

On the other hand, it may be that they never expected all their demands to be fulfilled; they were just horse trading and really expected about what they did get. And it may be that that was what their true believers understood and expected as well, so they lost no face at all, but instead gained it as shrewd horse traders.

I can't tell which way the Ghaza street will go. While I've studied their thinking as well as I can, but anthropology and language books are at best written for non-Arabs by non-Arabs, and the famous volatility of the collective Arab psyche makes reliable predictions impossible.

But it wouldn't at all break my heart if Bibi is vindicated, and very soon the Ghaza street hangs the leaders of Hamas from lamp posts by their guts for "betraying the Ummah" and all that. Perhaps that is Bibi's hope. It beats Bonky and Blare's, even though it may be equally fatuous.

Since the inner workings of politics, diplomacy and war are usually hidden from public view we will see what happened/happens largely in retrospect.

It will be interesting.

But it wouldn't at all break my heart if Bibi is vindicated

And he may well be. These events are still very new.

But here's my question: Vindicated for what end? To mow the grass again in another year? Is living by the sword truly what Israelis are choosing to accept?

What is BiBi's goal, what's his endgame for Gaza and the West Bank?

Hamas was a more formidable foe than anyone, including me, expected. If the endgame doesn't include real, substantive negotiations for the people under Israel's control, or the total annihilation of the Palestinians--how do Israelis define peace?

I would appreciate your insights...because this war has left me really confused.

Thanks.

With the establishment of any ceasefire that does not include total Israeli takeover and occupation of Gaza Hamas survives and thus wins. Hamas is given a breathing space in which to rearm and to get more effective weapons for the next attack which will occur when Hamas or whatever Palie entity is in charge decides that they can score some points by ramping it up again.