From the start of the fighting in Gaza this summer, the Obama administration publicly insisted on a return to the status quo ante, specifically a ceasefire based on the outlines of the agreement that ended the 2012 Gazar war. Given the administration’s steadfast commitment to doing nothing about terrorist safe havens and preventing others from doing anything about them, that was no surprise.

What remains a mystery is why Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed so readily to those terms, which were the essence of the Egyptian ceasefire proposal put forward July 15. Even if a return to status quo ante was justifiable in the opening days of the conflict, surely the missiles that landed near Ben Gurion Airport, temporarily scaring off commercial traffic from Israel’s one international airport, should have changed the calculus. Surely the scores of Israeli dead, the continued rocket fire, and the 2,000 Palestinian dead should have changed the calculus.

Once it was revealed that Hamas’s missiles could reach all the major cities of Israel, Israel should have demanded that Hamas agree to disarm its missile stocks as a ceasefire condition. When I saw the recently agreed ceasefire, I was still holding out hope that some explanation — perhaps a secret side agreement — would effectively deal with the missiles.

Well, apparently not:

“The decision to accept the latest cease-fire with Hamas is completely without justification,” said Danny Danon, a member of parliament and leader of Netanyahu’s Likud party. “After thousands of rockets fired at our cities, and scores of Israelis killed and wounded, we are agreeing to accept the very situation that allowed Hamas to arm itself and prepare its forces for their murderous attacks on Israel,” Danon said.

We may soon know why Netanyahu acted as he did. And we will eventually know what kind of pressure the Obama administration put on Israel. I sincerely hope it was not the United States that brought about this terrorist victory, which contains the near-guarantee of another major war in the near term.

While we’re waiting for Netanyahu to explain Israel’s decisions, it would be nice if the Obama administration would explain just how a two-state solution is possible while Hamas is ensconced in a terrorist safe-haven armed with thousands of missiles, right on Israel’s border.