The broad terms of the cease-fire deal that Israel and Hamas finally agreed to Wednesday after a year of fruitless negotiations aren’t substantially different from those that were available to both sides eight months ago. What changed is everything else.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spent the first half of last year fighting with political rivals and trying to keep his governing coalition together. He was stuck in a war of attrition with Hamas in Gaza and facing ominous threats from Iran and its allied militia in Lebanon, Hezbollah.

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