According to the Associated Press and many other sources,Israel tonight launched a ground offensive into Gaza in its widening conflict with the leaders of its southerly neighbor, Hamas.

Haaretz newspaper calls the move "much-expected." Indeed, there was a great deal of speculation that such an incursion could happen, and it's almost unfathomable that both Israel and Hamas had not long gamed out the potential for such an event. That said, I would be lying to you if I didn't say I was nevertheless surprised, both because of my own views about Israel and from the sense I have thus far gotten in conversations with normal Israelis (not yet having spoken to those directly involved in politics in the country).

Israel has an election scheduled for a bit over a month away. With both the Foreign Secretary Tzipi Livni and Defense Secretary Ehud Barak running as candidates for Prime Minister, one would believe (or at least I came to believe) that an escalation beyond aerial and even artillery bombardments would not occur -- especially when such a move would be coupled with the mobilization of tens of thousands of reservists, which is the case tonight.

But even beyond that, the sense I have gotten during the days I have been here in Israel is that while the positions of those in the country have hardened in recent years -- particularly since the first time I came here on the eve of the country's 50th anniversary in 1998 when there was still great hope and an abiding desire for peace with the Palestinians -- and while the limited conflict enjoyed broad support across the political spectrum, a ground war was another matter entirely. Urban warfare is not easy. And even more, Hamas had been preparing Gaza as a fortress against a movement of Israeli ground forces and tanks, setting up mines and snipers' perches.

This isn't to say that the move will be without support, because sentiments about potential actions are different from those that actually come to fruition. And in the coming days, I'm hoping to get a better sense of whether this action will actually draw the requisite support from a population significantly more skeptical about ground operations against guerilla forces following the most recent Lebanon War.