Cease-fires are deceptive things, always starting out as rumors before developing into reports in the Arab media.
Later, the front appears calmer, the enemy stops firing its missiles and our planes return to their bases – but the sounds of battle continue to be heard in IDF briefings and statements from the Prime Minister's Office and the defense minister. The public follows the developments with concern and interest.
However, the clearest sign that a cease-fire has been reached are not in any report in Al Jazeera or in a cessation of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, but in the battle lines drawn inside the cabinet as ministers begin to take aim at one other.
As has been the case in every round of fighting in Gaza in the past 13 years, every one of which left a bad taste in our mouths, so too has this current round left a long trail of disappointment and frustration among residents of the Gaza border region and Israel in general. At the height of an election year, ministers and party heads cannot afford to be seen on the wrong side of the fiasco. From here, the path to the exchange of sharp and extreme accusations is only too short. All those at the closed cabinet meeting Tuesday supported the IDF's position. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summarized the meeting, no one spoke up. But just one minute later, when they stepped outside to speak to the media, they all went in for the kill.
The credibility of their statements to the media is questionable at best. Nothing in Education Minister Naftali Bennett's attack on Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Lieberman's criticism of Netanyahu, or the insinuation that the IDF and Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot are at fault will calm the worried minds of the people.
The politicians' desire to reap political benefits is understandable. Before being cabinet members, statesmen, diplomats or "security guys," they are first and foremost politicians. But it seems they are more limited than ever before in their ability to behave like politicians. After all, at the end of this disgraceful campaign, they are all in the same boat.
Ironically, those who should have gained something from all this were the heads of the opposition parties, who did try hard to offer an alternative agenda to that of the government by pointing out its destructive conduct and demonstrating decisiveness and determination.
But today, just like every other day, their voices were hardly heard. Although Labor party leader Avi Gabbay, Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid and Opposition Leader and Zionist Union head Tzipi Livni all spoke quite a lot of sense, it is hard to shake the feeling that they, just like the cabinet ministers, are really just trying to ride the political wave and nothing more. In practice, every single one of them has plans tucked away for another disengagement in Judea and Samaria, withdrawals, concessions, separation and evacuations. Those who have not learned the lessons of the past and insist on making those same mistakes again in the future will find it difficult to earn the people's trust when they try to play the tough guys.
