The current operation in Gaza is a direct consequence of the 2006 war in southern Lebanon. The obvious similarities have led many people to foresee a comparable outcome, with Israel condemned for causing great human suffering while smarting from a military humiliation.

As in 2006, Israel is responding to a cross-border provocation and is fighting in territories it once occupied but then abandoned in the hope of a ­quieter life. As in 2006, the operation began with massive air strikes, widely decried as being disproportionate in their effects, to be followed, with evident misgivings, by a land offensive.