At one level the military operation is about saving the short term political careers of Miss Livni and Mr Barak, but they could argue it is also about saving their vision of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict…

Under the plan Israel would be willing to give up some of the land it occupied in 1967 for a new Palestinian state but this is based on the assumption that the land would not be used as a base for attacks on Israel.

Right-wingers like Mr Netanyahu do not believe in a land-for-peace swap because they believe militants will continue to attack across any new Israeli-Palestinian frontier.