AFTER four weeks basking in almost unwavering public support Ehud Olmert yesterday awoke to a fusillade of criticism from the Israeli press.

Opinion polls questioned the Israeli Prime Minister’s handling of the Lebanon war and one front-page headline even demanded: “Olmert must go”.

Hawkish generals had reportedly been pressing a reluctant Prime Minister to mount a larger offensive to the Litani river, even as diplomats talked of reaching the basis of a negotiated solution. Mr Olmert and his military commanders were attacked from the Right for putting their faith in airstrikes to stop Hezbollah’s rocket attacks instead of flooding Lebanon with troops early in the campaign, and by others for planning a huge escalation that would probably incur hundreds of troop casualties.

A poll in Haaretz newspaper found only 48 per cent of respondents to be satisfied with Mr Olmert’s performance — down from 75 per cent. Only 20 per cent believe that Israel is winning the campaign.

This was directly contradicted by another poll, in the rival Yedioth Ahronoth, which found that 66 per cent believe that Mr Olmert has performed well and 78 per cent think that he was right to go to war, rising to 87 per cent among the country’s Jewish majority.

Crucial to Mr Olmert’s future is who will be able to claim they won after the fighting ends. If a multinational force is deployed alongside the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah retains its arms, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s group will certainly claim victory for holding out against the Israeli Army three weeks longer than the combined Arab nations in 1967.

Israel will insist that it secured its main objectives by destroying many of Hezbollah’s rocket launchers, driving it north of the Litani and sending out a clear message that it will not hesitate to wreak destruction on anyone who attacks it.

Analysts said that it was vital for the Government’s longevity to get a strong United Nations resolution because of the hesitation and vacillation displayed in the military campaign against Hezbollah, despite steadfast Israeli public support.

But they say that if Katyusha rockets continue to fall in the months after any deal, the Israeli public will not forgive a government that promised to create a new regional order removing the Hezbollah threat from northern Israel.

“If Olmert runs away now from the war he initiated, he will not be able to remain Prime Minister for even one day . . . You cannot lead an entire nation to war promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and remain in power,” Avi Shavit wrote on the front page of Haaretz.

Gerald Steinberg, head of the conflict management programme at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, said that the Israeli Government was on thin ice because of confusion in the public mind about the military and diplomatic strategies.

On the front line soldiers yesterday began to echo the confusion of many Israeli civilians.

“I don’t know what I’m doing here,” grumbled one liberal reservist. Most remain, however, like the population as a whole, solidly behind the aim of eradicating the missile threat from Hezbollah once and for all.

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