Was Israel's attack motivated by the forthcoming elections?

There have been several cynical news reports about Israel's attack on Gaza being motivated by the forthcoming elections. They may well have been, but is that particularly surprising given that Israel is a democracy? Ever since Israel left Gaza back in 2005, the southern end of the country has been bombarded by thousands of Hamas rockets. Israel's government, like any democratically elected government has a responsibility to defend its citizens... or face being turfed out of office.

In fact you could easily argue the opposite, that Israel has done relatively little up till now precisely because there were relatively few votes to be found in Sderot and Ashkelon. Had Tel Aviv been in the firing line, Israel may well have acted earlier.