You don't give a source for that interesting piece, bruce, but (thanks to Google's magic)I see it's from today's Washington Post. Hard Lesson for Israel

"Israel probably could have ensured that the moderates won the argument by offering to lift its economic blockade of Gaza in exchange for a continued cease-fire." It seems likely that there are people on both sides who would have seen that kind of deal as undesirable, and who would have been happy to do what they could to provoke the other side.

That would be consistent both with the Israeli raid into Gaza on 4th November that killed six Hamas people, and the subsequent escalation of rocket firing and formal announceent about the end of the ceasefire by Hamas.

And the coincidence of the impending new administration in Washington and the impending Israeli election would have offered a window of opportunity and a political motive for those arguing for an attack on Gaza at this time. (That date 4th November...)