JERUSALEM - A majority of Israelis want Defence Minister Amir Peretz to
resign and a commission to be established to investigate Israel's conduct in the
month-long war against Hizbollah, opinion polls showed on Wednesday.
Israeli Defence
Minister Amir Peretz sits between two Israeli flags as he listens to his
Chief of Staff Dan Halutz (unseen) during a press conference in Tel Aviv
in July 2006. Peretz has vowed that the Israeli army would not allow the
Hezbollah militia to return to south
Lebanon.[AFP\File] |
Seventy percent of Israelis said they disagreed with the government's
decision to accept a U.N.-brokered ceasefire without the return of two Israeli
soldiers captured by Hizbollah in a cross-border raid on July 12 that triggered
the conflict.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a career politician who lacks the combat
credentials of many of his predecessors, has faced a political backlash for
failing to deliver a fatal blow to Hizbollah and for accepting the U.N. truce.
Olmert has seen his public standing plummet.
Only 40 percent of Israelis said they were pleased with Olmert's performance,
down from nearly 80 percent in July, a poll in the Maariv newspaper showed.
Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they were pleased with Peretz's
performance, down from over 60 percent last month.
Nearly half of Israelis - 49 percent - believe Olmert was responsible for
Israeli failings during the conflict, according to Maariv.
While 41 percent believed Olmert should resign, 57 percent said Peretz should
go, according to a separate poll in the Yedioth Aronoth mass circulation daily.
A truce to end 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hizbollah began on
Monday and has largely held.
At least 1,110 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis were killed in the
conflict.
Except for Israel's ongoing conflict with the Palestinians, Israel suffered
heavier civilian casualties in the Lebanon conflict than in any fighting since
the war at the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.
Sixty-six percent of Israelis in the Maariv poll said no one won the war. A
narrow majority - 53 percent - said Israel should have continued to fight
instead of agreeing to the ceasefire.
Sixty-nine percent of Israelis said an official commission of inquiry should
be set up to "examine the conduct of the political and military echelons",
according to Yedioth.
