As the ceasefire agreement appears to be working and residents of northern Israel are returning to their homes and rebuilding their lives, domestic scandals are returning the headlines. Senior government officials are again being charged with sexual harassment and appointing their cronies to high-paying and influential positions, like usual.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has even started to talk about the convergence plan again. However, his drastic decline in popularity due to his fumbling throughout the war has led him to change his tune and abandon the unpopular plan - at least until he regains some points in the popularity polls. One hopes that this is not a simple public relations ploy, but a  sign that he has learned something from the mistakes he made during the war and is rethinking his entire strategy.

Indeed, now that the ceasefire is in place, it is not time to simply return to business as usual but to utilize the solidarity and goodwill that developed in Israeli society to address the many problems that the war painfully brought to the public's attention.