With Guns Silent, Wartime Unity Unravels in Israel Amid Fierce Criticism of War Effort
By GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM, Aug. 17 — In a country where raucous debate is the norm, Israelis set aside differences during war. They even have an expression for it: “Quiet. We’re shooting.”
But the guns have gone silent, the debate has resumed and the wartime unity has shattered.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and the military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, are all facing fierce, even vitriolic criticism in a country accustomed to swift and decisive battlefield triumphs against Arab enemies.
“Because everyone served in the army, every Israeli thinks he’s a generalissimo,” said Shlomo Avineri, a political science professor at Hebrew University. “The achievements were less than expected, and the price was too high.”
He added: “From the beginning we should have set more modest goals. A lot of this agonizing is self-inflicted.”
A sizable number of Israelis have challenged the claims of their leaders that Israel won the war against Hezbollah.
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