The fascinating battle that Israel has been waging in recent months on Capitol Hill against the Iranian nuclear agreement has overtaken the regional and international agenda in Israel, pushing aside the “boring” confrontation with the Palestinians. An Iranian nuclear bomb and long-range missiles are far more interesting than Hamas' primitive Qassam rockets and a few tunnels. The struggle between a small state's prime minister — singularly facing off the strongest man in the world and five other world powers — captures the audience's imagination to a greater extent than a few reports about a new cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Even the best show in town, however, must come to an end. It would seem that Israel will not be treated to a happy ending of the “Bibi, Man of La Mancha” show in Washington, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the role of Don Quixote, waging war against the world over the nuclear deal. An accounting on the first anniversary of the cease-fire agreement with Hamas signed on Aug. 26, 2014, suggests Bibi will not be getting an ovation on the local scene, either.

In the absence of popular acclaim after Operation Protective Edge, Netanyahu had to clap his own hands. At a news conference he convened just hours after the cease-fire went into effect on Aug. 27, the prime minister hailed the defeat inflicted by the strongest army in the Middle East on what he himself branded a “terror organization.” Netanyahu went on to present a list of Hamas demands that Israel had rejected: a sea port — didn’t get one; an airport — didn’t get one. The same went for Hamas' demand that Israel release the prisoners freed in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange who had been rearrested and its requests for Qatari or Turkish mediation, rehabilitation of Hamas institutions in the West Bank and money from Israel. A true knockout by Israel. Applause!

But that’s not all. Netanyahu took credit not just for a tactical victory, but for a long-term strategic achievement as well. “We also instilled the understanding that the long-term goal is the demilitarization of Hamas and the terrorist organizations, the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu said. Is that so? What do we read and hear about more: the demilitarization of Gaza or its reconstruction? For a few minutes, it seemed as if the prime minister had discerned the link between distress and violence. In his remarks summing up Operation Protective Edge, Netanyahu promised to allow the humanitarian rehabilitation of Gaza. Perhaps he had understood what former Chief of Staff Benny Gantz had said when he warned that war could again erupt if the pendulum were to swing more toward despair than hope.

According to data compiled by the human rights organization Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, despair is getting the better of hope, by far. Gaza's unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2015 stood at 41.5%. From the cease-fire until the end of June, only 6.5% of the needed building materials had entered the Gaza Strip. For the same period, only 4.2% of Gaza's workforce — slightly more than 11,000 people — were employed in construction. According to a newly issued report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), per capita income in Gaza is 31% lower than it was when the Palestinian Authority (PA) entered the territories some 20 years ago.