As Lebanon yesterday began rebuilding after Thursday night's Israeli air raids on power stations, bridges and other targets around Beirut and the south, Israel's outgoing Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, rejoiced that "Lebanon and Syria got the message". He reiterated that Israel would respond "in the harshest manner" if its civilians were harmed again in the future.
The series of Israeli raids, the heaviest in more than three years, came in response to a flurry of Katyusha rocket attacks, by Hizbullah forces in south Lebanon, on northern Israel. Nine Lebanese were killed in the Israeli attacks; two Israelis died in the Hizbullah rocket fire.
Amid fears that the cross-border hostilities would escalate into deeper confrontation, Syria, the key power-broker in Lebanon, worked quietly at the weekend to prevent further Katyusha strikes. Mr Netnayahu clearly regarded this behind-the-scenes intervention as a vindication - prove that Syria can rein in Hizbullah when it so chooses, and that the unexpectedly fierce Israeli strikes had brought at least interim calm to the border.
Mr Ehud Barak, the One Israel party leader who is set to take over from Mr Netanyahu within the next two weeks, is still refusing to say whether or not he supported the air strikes. It is known that, on at least two occasions in the recent past, he declined to give backing to air raids on Lebanon - explaining that until he is sworn into office he has no formal decision-making role - and that, last Thursday, Mr Netanyahu gave the orders to strike without seeking his approval.
But Mr Barak is promising to make the Lebanon issue "a top priority" as soon as he becomes prime minister.
The timing of the succession depends on the fate of Mr Barak's coalition negotiations. He has been working non-stop, since his election victory on May 17th, to muster a stable government.
Although he crushed Mr Netanyahu by 56 per cent to 44 per cent in the vote for prime minister, his One Israel party won only 26 seats in the 120-member Knesset. As of yesterday, he had signed up three partners - the 10-member Meretz party, the six-member Yisrael Ba'aliya immigrant party, and the five-man National Religious Party. But that still left him short of the minimum 61-strong majority coalition, and talks were continuing with half-a-dozen other parties, including the ultra-Orthodox Shas.
Mr Barak is also running into criticism from within his own One Israel grouping, from party leaders who fear that too many top ministerial posts are being handed out to coalition partners.