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PM Olmert addresses the Knesset Monday (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 14, 2006 |
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Ehud Olmert said Monday he took sole responsibility, as Israel's prime minister, for the offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and said the war shifted the strategic balance in the region.
But the public wasn't buy, and the "responsibility" the PM and his governing cadre took was quickly translated into "blame" by a furious public. A Smith opinion public opinion survey published by Globes indicates that a mere 6% of the public believes, as Olmert and Peretz claim to, that the outcome of the war was good for Israel. 66% think the outcome was not good.
Support for both Olmert's Kadima and Peretz's Labor parties plunged by about a third, with Kadima down from 29 to 20 and Labor down from 20 to 12.
This result represents a marked change from the trend during the past month of war in the north, Globes reported, when the public expressed its support for the government and the IDF, with views that could be described as ?patriotic.?
The poll also reveals that around half the public think the ceasefire will hold up for a month, while 35% think it will last no more than a week.
The personal polling figures for both Olmert and Peretz, with both of them gaining deeply unfavorable ratings in their handling of the war.
Nevertheless, in a speech to parliament hours after a U.N. brokered cease-fire took effect, Olmert said the agreement eliminated the "state within a state" run by Hezbollah, and restored Lebanon's sovereignty in the south.
Olmert's statement to the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset, was his first since the early days of the war, which broke out July 12.
With the fighting over, the unity that governed Israeli politics was expected to quickly fracture. Three Knesset members were ejected from the parliament during Olmert's speech for heckling and several others had called for a commission of inquiry into the offensive.
Following Olmert's speech, Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the opposition Likud Party, said there were serious problems with the war.
"It must be said honestly, there were many failures, failures in identifying the threat, failures in preparing to meet the threat, failures in the management of the war, failures in the management of the home front," Netanyahu said. "Without doubt we shall need later on to learn the lessons and fix the mistakes."
With scores of soldiers and civilians killed in the 34 days of fighting, Olmert acknowledged there were "deficiencies" in the way the war was conducted. "We will have to review ourselves in all the battles," he said. "We won't sweep things under the carpet."
Anticipating that another war with Hezbollah may come in the future, he said Israel will learn the lessons of this war and "do better."
Olmert said the fighting brought a change in the strategic balance in the region, to Hezbollah's disadvantage. The militia's vast storehouse of weapons was mostly destroyed, and its self-confidence undermined, he said.
"We will continue to pursue them everywhere and at all times," he said. "We have no intention of asking anyone's permission."
He advised patience for his critics who believe that the war fell short of Israel's original goal of dismantling Hezbollah. "We don't plan to apologize," he said.
Olmert also promised to do everything he could to win the return of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah on July 12 in an attack that triggered the war.
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