JERUSALEM — Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip began with a simply stated goal shared by the senior leadership: cripple Hamas' ability, and break its will, to fire rockets across the border.
Seventeen days later, the goal remains elusive, the military operation has slowed, and the political consensus behind it is fraying.
After hundreds of airstrikes and a thundering ground invasion, a Palestinian death toll nearing 1,000 and international outcry over the bloodshed, Israeli leaders are furiously debating how and when the offensive should end.
None of the options offers guaranteed quiet on the Gaza front. They range from a unilateral withdrawal to a full-scale, bloody reoccupation of the Palestinian enclave that Israelis thought they had left behind more than three years ago.
The choices are complicated by bickering among the three officials -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak -- who ordered the offensive. Their relationship is strained by an election in which Livni and Barak are competing to replace Olmert.
Livni wants Israel to stop indirect cease-fire negotiations with Hamas and withdraw from Gaza. Olmert and Barak want a cease-fire deal but are divided over how much military force to apply to get it. Hovering over the conflict like a timekeeper is Barack Obama, whose inauguration a week from today is viewed in Israel as a deadline for ending the fight and avoiding friction with the new U.S. administration.
Olmert suggested Sunday that Hamas was on the verge of collapse and said "more patience, determination and effort" was needed to subdue the Islamic militant group, which continued to fire rockets into Israel, although at a much reduced rate.
Thousands of Israeli troops surrounding Gaza City are awaiting a political decision on whether to retreat or charge into Hamas' urban stronghold.
A front-page headline Monday in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz asked what many Israelis are thinking and Olmert's government itself is debating: "Quit while we're ahead?"
Among Israel's options:
Withdraw unilaterally
Some officials are sounding triumphant, saying the offensive has weakened Hamas and achieved deterrence. Livni said she wants to end the offensive, while threatening to repeat it, "should Hamas dare lift its head and hurt Israel again."
