“It will take some time before we know if we restored peace to the south and if we restored our power of deterrence. It will be a few weeks or months or even years before we know if this objective was achieved,” said Dan Meridor, former minister of intelligence and a member of the “Octet,” a group of senior ministers during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s second term. He was commenting on the end of Operation Protective Edge and the ensuing cease-fire agreement.

In an interview with Al-Monitor on Aug. 27, he called on Netanyahu to complement the military achievement with an Israeli diplomatic initiative, which he said would prevent the situation from escalating into another military conflict in the region. Is Netanyahu interested in that, or is he even capable of starting such an initiative? Meridor, who was shunted out of the Likud’s Knesset list when the party lurched to the right in the past election, has no answer to that question. He is convinced, though, that if Netanyahu takes that route, he will receive the backing of 70% of the Israeli public.

Al-Monitor:  You know Netanyahu intimately. You were a minister in his governments. How would you rate his handling of the operation in Gaza? Is public dissatisfaction with his performance justified?

Meridor:  Netanyahu made one big decision, which I think was correct, and which set the entire framework for this conflict. He set an objective that could be achieved: restoring quiet to the towns and villages in the south and restoring our power of deterrence. After all, he didn’t want this conflict, and was dragged into a war he didn’t want to fight. When there was no more choice, he entered the fray and set an objective, which is no trivial matter, since there is always a gap between what the public wants and what is actually possible.