Neighbours are more likely to exchange blows than gossip over the garden fence, according to a new survey. The phenomenon, known in Britain as “garden rage”, has taken a more extreme form in the Middle East. Three months ago a new occupant, Ehud Olmert, moved into the official home of Israel’s prime minister promising to be a model resident who would bring peace to a rowdy area. Instead, rockets, shells and air strikes rain down on surrounding back yards.

The rise of Israel’s 61-year-old leader has been meteoric. An uncharismatic technocrat thrust to prominence after Ariel Sharon’s stroke in January, Olmert went on to win the general election with a plan to withdraw unilaterally from parts of the West Bank and usher in regional security.

His honeymoon ended when a young Israeli soldier was captured by Palestinian militants three weeks ago. Rather than planning for peace, Olmert is waging war on two fronts, in Gaza and Lebanon, in an effort to bring Israel’s enemies to their knees. The West has looked on in dismay as the stakes ratchet up and hostilities take on a momentum of their own.

In a land of generals-turned-politicians, one explanation is that Olmert is over- compensating for his lack of military experience and trying to prove his credentials. He may not have the medals of former prime ministers such as Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak and Sharon — the last of Israel’s warrior leaders — but he is not alone. Amir Peretz, his defence minister, and Tzipi Livni, his foreign minister, have none either.

“Clearly, if Olmert and Peretz do not come out looking strong, their tenure is going to be short,” said Gerald Steinberg of Bar-llan University. A senior Israeli journalist, otherwise critical of Olmert, disagreed: “His actions are not because he has to prove himself. He is just taking decisions he believes are right at this time.”

Others point to a telling pattern of misjudgments during his tenure as mayor of Jerusalem from 1993-2003. The worst cited example was his secret approval of the opening of a Herodian tunnel in Jerusalem’s Old City, leading to riots in which more than 160 Palestinians and 14 Israelis died.

Despite portraying himself as a football fanatic and an avid runner who gave up cigar smoking in his first act as prime minister, Olmert has been unable to shake off his image as a fat-cat lawyer tainted by sleaze.

In 1997 he was indicted in a political finance scandal involving Jerusalem businessmen, organised crime and corrupt legislators, but was later acquitted. In February this year an inquiry was announced into the 1999 sale and lease-back of his Jerusalem house in allegedly questionable circumstances.

Tom Segev, a historian and columnist, has described him as “arrogant, cold, cunning and unpleasant”. Another writer takes a more balanced view: “His background is not impressive and he was never popular in the Likud party, but he is making an effort. During interviews he used to explode with rage in the first 30 seconds, but now he’s behaving in a more civilised way. He comes over as very nice, articulate, shrewd and only sometimes aggressive. He’s a very clever guy.”

Olmert’s worst critics are his own family, where he counts himself “in a minority of one”. His wife Aliza, a left-wing playwright and artist whom he met at college, has been at odds with his right-wing politics for much of their 35-year marriage. His recent move to the centre ground persuaded her to vote for him for the first time this year, albeit with “a certain hesitation”.

Her husband was at his most insufferable as mayor of Jerusalem, she confessed recently, when he played a role in expanding Jewish settlements and confiscating Palestinian land. It was their “worst time as a couple” and she found it difficult “to listen to his nationalistic speeches”.

As an artist she has exhibited all over the world and her recent work featured broken eggshells. A standard joke is that her husband tried to walk on them while mollifying his five children, who lean towards their mother’s dovish views. As mayor, Olmert withdrew funding from an annual gay pride parade, to the displeasure of his daughter Danna, a lesbian who lives openly with a girlfriend in Tel Aviv and is active in Machsom Watch, a group monitoring Palestinian human rights.

Then there are Olmert’s pacifist sons. Shaul, who lives in New York, signed a petition when he was a sergeant in the Israeli army refusing to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories. Olmert’s younger son Ariel avoided his military service and lives in Paris.