It was entirely predictable that Israel’s ferocious assault on Gaza in recent weeks would shift the country’s centre of political gravity sharply to the right ahead of Tuesday’s general election – as well as, on the Palestinian side, bolstering the Islamists of Hamas at the expense of the nationalists of Fatah.

As the vote loomed, the governing Kadima party, led by foreign minister Tzipi Livni, and its Labour allies under defence minister Ehud Barak, both seemed to be trying to out-hawk the frontrunner, Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the irredentist Likud. When former Labour leader Shimon Peres tried this tactic in 1996 – invading Lebanon and bombing Gaza in response to suicide attacks – Mr Netanyahu won the subsequent election.