From the Middle East News Service today:
While the Haaretz account is interesting, the one on the Galei Tzahal [Army Radio] (Hebrew) website is more revealing. Barak and Olmert have again let the cat out of the bag. Here is my quick translation of the crucial bit:
A sharp confrontation has taken place around the table at the full Ministry meeting. Discussing the subject of continuing firing of rockets from Gaza the Defence Minister [Ehud Barak] explained to his colleagues that negotiations are being conducted to ensure an arrangement with Hamas with Egypt acting as the intermediary. He was interrupted by the Prime Minister [Ehud Olmert] who said: “There are no negotiations. Israel does not intend to arrange a “calm” with that organisation.
The Defence Minister responded that the firing of the rockets would have stopped had Israel accepted the calm. “What the Defence Minister proposes proves that there was no value to the whole Cast Lead Operation. You are suggesting that now that we have smashed Hamas, we should accept the conditions that they offered to us before the operation.
So there you have it: A large proportion of the Gaza Infrastructure has been destored. 1300 Palestinians and 10 Israelis have been killed and the whole war could have been avoided had Israel accepted the ceasefire arrangements that Barak is proposing it should be doing now.