FACTBOX - U.S. responses to Israel's Gaza attacks

So have Palestinian divisions. Hamas Islamists seized the Gaza Strip in June 2007, leaving Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction in charge of the West Bank. Both would have to work with Israel for a comprehensive peace.

WHAT IS HILLARY CLINTON'S VIEW?

Clinton, a New York senator, is viewed as a favourite of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States. But once she stops representing New York to become Obama's secretary of state, Clinton could push for Arab-Israeli compromise.

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, worked up to the final hours of his presidency on an unsuccessful bid to forge a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace.

"U.S. diplomacy is critical in helping to resolve this conflict," she wrote in an article in Foreign Affairs magazine in November-December 2007.

WHAT WAS BEHIND THE TIMING OF THE ISRAELI ATTACKS?

Senior Israeli officials insist the timing had to do with Israel's coming election rather than any perceived lost opportunity with Bush leaving office.

"Why should everything be connected to the United States? A far more important date for Israel is February 10. There are elections in Israel," said one of the officials. "It wasn't politically sustainable for leaders in Israel to idly stand by and let Hamas continue shooting."

Another Israeli official said Israel could count on the Bush administration to help buy the military more time if the Gaza operation dragged on and international pressure grew for a cease-fire.

(Writing by Howard Goller; Additional reporting by Adam Entous in Jerusalem and Emily Kaiser in Washington; Editing by John O'Callaghan)