DID
ISRAEL WIN THE WAR?
After
almost one-month clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in
Lebanon, Israeli people discuss whether they could achieve
any success in the war. Following the ceasefire, the
comments made in the reports included in the Israeli media,
primarily in Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, Maariv and Yedioth,
intensively claimed that the war caused a negative
psychological effect on the people, and that no concrete
success could be achieved when the wars with the Arabic
countries in 1948, 1967 and 1973 are taken into
consideration.
Public
opinion openly mentions that the government failed to meet
the expectations; that there was a serious tension between
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Minister of Foreign Affairs
Tzipi Livni, who was against the military operation; that
Defense Minister Amir Peretz could not make healthy
situation assessments; and that the commanders of the
Israeli Defense Forces could not prevent the rocket attacks
of Hezbollah. It is emphasized that given the cost of one-month
war was almost five billion Dollars, an immediate political
crisis, which would deeply affect the coalition government,
is expected.
The opinion
polls in Israel indicate that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and
Defense Minister Amir Peretz lost support significantly
since the day they came to the power. Results of an opinion
poll carried out by Smith Research and published in the
Globes, the publication organ of the business circles,
indicated that 44 percent of the answers to the question
“did Israel win the war in Lebanon?” were “yes”. Only 6
percent of the people who participated in the opinion poll
believe that Israel could achieve most of its goals by the
ceasefire. Results of the opinion poll carried out by
“Teleseker Poll” indicate that the rate of the ones who
believe that Israel won the war is only 18 percent.
Some
Israeli analysts, including Gideon Levy, mention that the
Israeli defeat in Lebanon could be perceived as a positive
development since from now on it would make Israel “stop and
think before participating in a new military adventure and
solve its problems with its neighbors through peaceful ways.”
