Most Israelis want defence minister to resign: Poll

Jerusalem, Aug 16: 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 today.

Seventy per cent of Israelis said they disagreed with the government's decision to accept a UN-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 UN truce.

Olmert has seen his public standing plummet.

Only 40 per cent of Israelis said they were pleased with Olmert's performance, down from nearly 80 per cent in July, a poll in the Maariv newspaper showed.

Twenty-eight per cent of respondents said they were pleased with Peretz's performance, down from over 60 per cent last month.

Nearly half of Israelis -- 49 per cent -- believe Olmert was responsible for Israeli failings during the conflict, according to Maariv.

While 41 percent believed Olmert should resign, 57 per cent 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 per cent -- said Israel should have continued to fight instead of agreeing to the ceasefire.

Sixty-nine per cent 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.

Reuters