This round of conflict has been Israel's 9/11 in two important ways; first, Israel has vastly overreacted to the attack, just as the U.S. did to al Qaeda. Second, Israel's current right wing government is using the conflict for political advantage, just as W and the GOP did post 9/11.

Netanyahu and his allies remain determined to annex the West Bank and preclude formation of a Palestinian state. He probably feels that time is on his side in maintaining power, that the longer the conflict continues the further he gets from paying politically for his vast intelligence failure.

A lot of innocent people pay the price for the political and ideological ambitions of callous old men on all sides of the conflicts in the Middle East, and right now the media are ignoring entirely the Sunni/Shia conflict that is at the heart of the Gaza war.