MIDDLE EAST: Pressure mounted on the Israeli government last night after a newspaper poll showed for the first time that a majority want prime minister Ehud Olmert to resign over perceived failures in his handling of the war with Hizbullah.
A poll in the mass circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper showed 63 per cent wanted Mr Olmert to go. The defence minister, Amir Peretz, appears even more vulnerable after 74 per cent called for his resignation, while 54 per cent want Lieut Gen Dan Halutz, the chief of staff, to quit as well.
The poll reflects the growing disillusionment within Israel about the 34-day conflict and the fact that the country emerged without a clear victory over the Lebanese militia.
The two Israeli soldiers whose capture triggered the conflict are still not free. The war claimed the lives of more than 1,100 people in Lebanon, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem yesterday calling for Mr Olmert's resignation. Many waved the Israeli flag. Among them were reservist soldiers, who have led criticisms of the war, as well as Moshe and Riva Moskal, whose son Rafael, a 21-year-old staff sergeant, was killed in action.
"We think this country deserves better leadership," said Mrs Moskal. "The north was bombed and they didn't do anything. They failed there, they failed here," she said. "We feel lost. We feel there is no leadership and we feel as parents that we lost the most precious thing we had.
"We believe it was our duty to raise a voice of protest. This beautiful Israeli nation is strong but has values which seem to have been lost in the last few years."
The crowd at the cemetery gathered around the grave of Golda Meir, the Israeli prime minister who was forced to resign in April 1974 after a wave of much larger protests in the wake of the Yom Kippur war a year earlier.
Some reservists have already held days of demonstrations in Jerusalem, setting up a protest tent close to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. Nir Hirshman (27), one of the protest leaders, said their complaint was not about shortages of food and water on the battlefield, but strategic questions over the war itself.
"We don't care about food or water, we care about responsibility, the government's responsibility," he said. His T-shirt read: "Olmert, Peretz, Halutz: take responsibility."
"We believe Israel's strength is in its democracy, its morality," he said. "The reservists protesting here believe that the battle fought by Israel in Lebanon continues here. We want the prime minister to resign and then a state commission of inquiry to determine responsibility."
The test the protesters face is whether their demonstrations will grow large enough to force a change in government. Mr Olmert believes he can stay in office and has resisted the idea of a state commission of inquiry to investigate the handling of the war, though he was expected to consider the issue again at a cabinet meeting tomorrow.
However, yesterday's newspaper poll suggests many Israelis are looking elsewhere for new leaders. Politicians from the right, such as Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman, were some way ahead of Mr Olmert in a list of those considered most suitable to take over as prime minister.
The responses show the right-wing Likud party would probably come top in an election now and Mr Olmert's centrist Kadima party would slip back.
Mr Olmert's wartime performance was rated "not good" by 74 per cent of respondents.
"Ladies and gentleman: an upheaval," Yedioth Ahronoth wrote in a report about its poll. "Upheaval is not the word. Earthquake would be more suitable to describe the condition of the Olmert government 110 days after its term of office began."