Israeli Protesters Demand That Prime Minister Resign

Tens of thousands of Israelis pack Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to call for Ehud Olmert to step down over his handling of the war with Lebanon. (By David Silverman -- Getty Images)

TEL AVIV, May 3 -- Tens of thousands of Israelis assembled Thursday in Rabin Square, the customary venue for this country's public soul-searching, to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over his alleged mismanagement of the war in Lebanon last summer.

But the crowd appeared smaller than organizers had predicted, highlighting the sense of complacency that many of Olmert's sharpest critics contend has swept Israel during a time of prosperity at home and enduring threats abroad.

Judging by past rallies in the square, the crowd appeared to number slightly more than 100,000 people, about half the turnout forecast by some organizers. Effie Eitam, a lawmaker from the opposition National Union party who helped plan the event, said more than 150,000 demonstrators were on hand.

Those who gathered in the warm Mediterranean evening, many emblazoned with stickers saying "Olmert Go Home" and "Elections Now," appeared to be an accurate reflection of the religious and secular, the hawks and doves, the old and young who make up the country's diverse electorate.

The protest also reached beyond Olmert's management of the war, sharply criticized in a report released Monday by the government-appointed Winograd Committee, and touched on the broad disgust many Israelis hold toward the current government. Demonstrators noted the allegations of financial impropriety facing the prime minister, as well as what some described as the poor state of public education and broken promises to help the poor, as additional reasons he should step down.

"There was no correlation between words and deeds during the war," said Ron Yafa, 50, a farmer who traveled 40 miles from the southern town of Lachish to attend his first demonstration in the square. "It's all rotten up there."

But Olmert, who survived a revolt within his Kadima party a day earlier, appeared no closer to resigning. Before Thursday, there had been virtually no public protest since the committee released its interim report accusing Olmert of "serious failings" in managing the war with Hezbollah, the armed Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement.

The 33-day war started after Hezbollah gunmen crossed Israel's northern border and captured two Israeli soldiers. The committee found that Olmert never sought a clear military plan for securing the soldiers' release or to protect the northern part of the country from Hezbollah, which fired about 4,000 rockets into Israel over that time. It is believed that Hezbollah still holds the soldiers.

Earlier in the day, the leader of the opposition Likud Party, Binyamin Netanyahu, called on Olmert to resign. Netanyahu spoke during a special parliamentary session to discuss the committee's findings. Polls show that Likud would finish first if new elections were held now. Netanyahu, a former prime minister, said that "those who failed in war cannot be those who correct the failures."

The largest public protest in Israel occurred in September 1982, after the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian civilians by Lebanese Phalangist militias at refugee camps in Beirut following Israel's invasion of Lebanon. Between 300,000 and 400,000 Israelis filled Rabin Square soon after to demand the resignation of then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who retired from public life within a year.

"Failures Go Home," declared the slogan on the backdrop of the main stage at Thursday's rally, as ralliers milled throughout the evening.

Eitam predicted new elections within a year. "Olmert has united the opposition, and this is creating the potential for a new wave in Israeli politics," the lawmaker said.

Ratzon Tzadok, a 60-year-old construction contractor who arrived from the Tel Aviv suburb of Kiryat Ono, voted for Shas, the ultra-Orthodox party in Olmert's coalition, in the last elections but intends to vote for Netanyahu next time.

"I expect this government to say we made a mistake, that people lost their lives in vain, that this war was in vain," Tzadok said. "This nation is tired of demonstrations."

Wilson reported from Jerusalem.