Cease-fire aimed at ending 11 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas takes effect

“To Israeli ears, a cease-fire means a kind of Hamas victory, where they get the amalgamated West Bank, Gaza and Arab Palestinian political victory, and also got to fire 4,000 rockets at us,” said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington. “For many Israelis this time, they’re increasingly telling themselves: once we’ve started, we might as well keep going to the end.”