It is openly recognized in Israel that Benjamin Netanyahu’s assault on Gaza is at least partly aimed at winning votes in the upcoming Israeli elections, but you would never know that from reading the New York Times. The newspaper’s report today goes on for 28 paragraphs, but has almost nothing to say about why Israel is attacking now.

You have to get to the 13th paragraph to before you find this single, convoluted, oblique reference to the Israeli vote:

The attacks on Gaza were undertaken at a delicate time for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, nine weeks before elections, and may have partly reflected his administration’s own sense that it needed to send a message of deterrence beyond Gaza.

Deterrence to whom? To other unnamed, mysterious but always dangerous Arabs? Or to Israeli voters, who might be starting to see that Netanyahu’s policies, including his de facto endorsement of Romney, continue to weaken Israel all over the world?