Tweezers work better than a hammer

Sometimes war is like a huge smorgasbord. You sigh with pleasure over every morsel. You take one bite, and another, and another, until all of a sudden you feel sick and your stomach starts turning over. In the end, you realize that the food wasn't as good as it looked. In a way, Operation Cast Lead is like that. We knew what we wanted to achieve, but we didn't know when enough was enough.

The reasons for launching the operation were totally justified. There is no argument about that. As the government explained to anyone who was willing to listen, it is inconceivable that a country should sit quietly for eight years as rockets are fired into a widening circumference of population centers - first Sderot, then Ashdod, and then suddenly Be'er Sheva, the capital of the Negev. If we had gone on twiddling our thumbs, we would have woken up one morning to missiles in Tel Aviv.

The world accepted the operation with understanding. Moderate leaders in the region, sick with worry over the spread of fundamentalist Islam under the aegis of Iran, were delighted. Jordan watched and kept its mouth shut. Egypt not only shed no tears, but volunteered to broker an agreement. Syria sat still, never letting on that it was afraid the same thing could happen over there. In Gaza, there was no open solidarity with Hamas.

International support of Israel was wall-to-wall. Israeli PR - "If London, Paris, New York or [fill in the blank] were being attacked by missiles day after day, what would you do?" - did its stuff. The problems started because we didn't know when to step on the brake.

It is important to realize that this was no replay of the Second Lebanon War. This time, we saw an Israel Defense Forces changed beyond recognition, thanks to the professionalism of Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi - our first non-political chief of staff, with a mind focused on building an army rather than on how to get elected prime minister. Recognizing the authority of the government, he says to the defense cabinet: You decide on the objective and I'll tell you what's possible.

But under the shadow of the upcoming elections, the cabinet apparently expected something along the lines of wiping out Hamas. Inner sanctum meetings were fraught with personal and political squabbling between the ministers.

The most radical of the bunch is Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who comes across as someone who is hoping to purge himself from the fiasco of the Second Lebanon War, as the commander-in-chief who led the country to a glorious victory just before dropping off the government stage into the clutches of the police.

Next in line is Tzipi Livni, who is sick of being told she doesn't know anything about defense. Now she has adopted a bullying tone to prove she does, and to make it clear that when it comes to fighting Hamas, she is a hawk and one tough cookie.

Some say we should have stopped after the first stage of the offensive, after laying waste to Hamas command centers and symbols of power. But when the shelling continued, our tanks moved into Gaza, turning what was one of Israel's "most just wars," to quote Ariel Sharon about the first Lebanon war, into a target of international outrage over the mass killing of innocent people. It is true that Hamas uses civilians as human shields, but what a pity that such a just war has turned us into "child killers" in the eyes of the world.

Olmert and Livni are not in love, as everyone knows, but elections are elections, and the two have banded together to challenge Ehud Barak's authority to decide when Operation Cast Lead has run its course.

With the international community up in arms, the Egyptians trying to arrange a cease-fire and above all, the worry that one fine day, Washington will come knocking, Barak is right to adopt Sharon's famous line that "restraint is also power," and Livni is wrong to choose this particular time to prove she is a great military maven.

When a pilot who took part in the Gaza offensive writes anonymously to Yedioth Ahronoth that any military operation needing legal approval is a deplorable operation, it is a chilling sign that we have crossed the line, not only in the eyes of the world, but in our own eyes.

Yes, they are still shooting at us from Gaza, but there is no question it is being done for show, before a cease-fire goes into effect. The government must not fall into their trap and threaten a "disproportionate response." Better tweezers than a hammer.