Thousands of Israelis poured into the Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Thursday at night and rallied against the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, for his and his government’s conduct during the second Lebanon war, Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported.The number of protesters was estimated by 200.000, including parents of soldiers who were killed in the Lebanon war and in the Gaza Strip. Some of the parents of the fallen soldiers also spoke to the crowd and demanded the government to be connected with the people instead of being “led by political calculations and egos”
Labor member of Knesset Ami Ayalon, said that he hopes that this rally will bring the government of Olmert down.
In an interview with the Israeli Ynetnews, Ayalon stated that the public wants Olmert and his government to step down, and that this should be met with a political action.
Also, Likud member of Knesset, Gilad Erdan, told the Ynetnews that the government must resign, and that he expects Shas and Israeli Our Home parties to join “the anti Olmert block”.
Chairman of the Tafnit (Turnaround) Party, Uzi Dayan, said the Olmert must “do the right thing and resign”.
He added that the rally, which brought together members of secular, religious, left and right parties, old and young people, should be enough to tell Olmert that he failed, and that he should “stop clinging to his chair, and resign”.
This huge rally was organized is the wake of a report conducted by the “Winograd Commission” which probed the government handling of the last war with Hezbollah. The Commission was appointed last September by Olmert and his Defense Minister, Amir Peretz, and its investigation revealed that both leaders had a defective leadership during the war.
Israeli decided to go to war with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah party after its fighters managed to abduct two Israeli soldiers on a cross-border attack in July 12 last year. The two soldiers are still held captive by Hezbollah.
