As these lines are written, another round of hostilities between Israel and the terror organizations in Gaza is nearing its conclusion. And once again, just as it was in past conflicts, the two sides have been firing like mad at each other and many were killed or injured.

Alas, both sides are still trapped in the same hopeless impasse. Hamas keeps stockpiling rockets and building legitimacy while Israel is buying another few months of quiet until the next round. The campaign began last week with a display of Israeli victory: the picture of the crushed and burning car in which Hamas’ military chief in Gaza, Ahmed Jabari, was riding. It was expected to end Tuesday evening, Nov. 20, with the Hamas victory shot: a direct hit by a Fajr-5 rocket on an apartment house in Rishon LeZion, a big city at the heart of Israel’s Dan metropolitan area, two minutes away from Tel Aviv.

Each side and its image of victory.

However, if we look more seriously at the geo-political situation in the days of Operation Cast Lead, we will see that it has fundamentally changed since then. In the course of that operation, launched at the end of 2008 under Israel's then-prime minister Ehud Olmert, Gaza was attacked from the air and invaded on the ground.