SHIMON PERES was beaming from ear to ear. Introducing the US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, to a room full of journalists waiting for details of the Lebanon ceasefire, the Israeli Prime Minister used the language of a midwife in a hospital delivery room to describe the newly arrived truce: "As they say," he joked, "it's a boy.
Having spent the past week flying back and forth from Damascus to Jerusalem, sleeping as little as three hours a night, it is fairly certain that the 70 year old Mr Christopher was in rather less festive mood.
But what is most curious is why Mr Peres should believe he has much to joke about. His 16 day military bombardment of Lebanon appears to have achieved few, if any, of its objectives, has damaged Israel's international standing, and may have crippled his own chances of winning next month's general elections.
Far from destroying the pro Iranian Hizbullah group, 24,000 Israeli shells have helped raise support for the movement - and its goal of pushing Israel out of the "security zone" in the south of the country - to a new high.
If any of the 400,000 Lebanese civilians forced to flee their homes by the Israeli assault were previously indifferent to the Hizbullah struggle, they are unlikely to remain so when they see the rubble to which many of their homes has been reduced.
The appalling pictures of the tragedy at Kafr Qana, where misdirected Israeli shells killed over 100 Lebanese on April 18th, not only cost Israel international backing, but will also mean reduced sympathy whenever Islamic extremist bombers next conspire to cause similar devastation in Israel.
Whether the Israeli public embraces Grapes of Wrath as a worthwhile operation will depend solely on the implementation of the truce: if all Katyusha fire does, indeed, come to a halt, then the thousands of northern Israelis who fled their homes will certainly have cause for relief.
But since the ceasefire does not extend to Israeli Hizbullah confrontations in the security zone, the Israeli Lebanese border will remain active, and the prospect of soldiers dying on the frontier will remain real; more fighting in the zone will be detrimental to Mr Peres's electoral chances.
Most detrimental of all, however, will be an anticipated decline in support for Mr Peres among Israel's 800,000 Arab citizens, many of whom have been horrified by the bombardment and who are resolving not to support his campaign for another term in office.
Israel's peace accords with the Palestinians are back on track: the anti Israeli clauses of the PLO Covenant have been cancelled; Mr Peres's Labour Party has dropped its opposition to a Palestinian state; and Israel is to withdraw its troops from Hebron in early May.
But even Mr Christopher's persistence could not persuade Syria and Lebanon to agree to an immediate resumption of their peace negotiations with Israel. That, after all, would have looked like rewarding Mr Peres for 16 days of devastation.
David Horovitz is managing editor of the Jerusalem Report
Reuter add: An Israeli opinion poll published yesterday showed Mr Shimon Peres leading his right wing challenger in the race for May 29th elections.
The Dahaf survey of 773 people for the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper gave Mr Peres the support of 49 per cent compared with 44 per cent for the Likud party leader, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu.