I don't think so. Part of the problem had to be that the air force said, "Let us soften them up." This would indeed save Israeli troopers lives, but would be viewed as "weakness" by the Islamists. Another part of the problem has to be that this is a brand new cabinet just feeling its way on security issues.
As for calling for a cease-fire, so what? What the US has done is give Israel more time _after_ a cease-fire has been called for to finish the job. "Playing for time."
And what are the Europeans going to do? try to impose sanctions on Israel? That will get vetoed real quick. So Olmert and Rice agreed to call the 48 hour temporary halt in bombing to make it look like Rice had "pressured" Israel. This would play well with the Arabs. "See," they can say to their people, "The US is trying but the Israelis are intransigent, as they always are."
And notice the crowd in Beirut. 5,000 people. Staged event. Nobody gets hurt, nobody gets arrested, and the international media can play it up big. But 5,000 is _nothing_. Once again the impotence of the Arab street is revealed. And the impotence of Syria and Iran are being even more revealed. Iran won't even admit they have armed Hezbollah. Syria is making noises, but they know, if they weren't capable of hurting Israel in 1982, when they lost big time in the Bekaa, there is no way in 2006, with Israel armed with modern US weaponry, that they stand a chance in hell of taking them on. Heck, they couldn't break through the Golan Heights in 1973 with a 10 to 1 tank advantage. Hardly likely they can do it now with Israel armed with Merkava tanks, f-15s, f-16s, JDAMs, and all the other precision guided munitions.
"On the first day of this they should have air assaulted to the Litani and forced Hezballah to fight on two fronts and fire rockets north to attack the Israeli positions on the Litani. Doing this on day 22 is stupid and shows just how emasculated the west is due to the Peace movement The Izzies have lost the Info Op and will fail to take the Litani by the Cease fire unless the do some amphib ops above Tyre and some helo inserts into the Bekkaa(sp)"
That's what happens when you have a non-military PM (Olmert) assigning a war to an Israeli-Air force general.