The ceasefire is only official upon substantive international replacement.

It is preposterous to assume a cease fire would have any usefulness without the IDF's recent expanded efforts. Olmert's decisions are a disaster for Israel. His holding back the military offensive and forcing them into a race against the cease-fire clock to accomplish a difficult mission is unacceptable. WAKE UP ISRAEL AND CHANGE YOUR LEADERSHIP !

Olmert is a Dunce. A true non leader.

Good points raised in this discussion. But I am truly surprised by this "Arab world" myth which everybody in the region seems to conspire to entertain. What possible connection can there be between a Saudi Emir and a landless Palestinian ? Between an Algerian Kabyle shepherd and a Lebanese Sunni industrialist ? And if we're going to talk about Islam (in it's widely varying forms), let's try talking about the solidarity of the "Christian" world. Even the spoken languages vary enormously. An Arab Israeli is far closer to a Hassidic Jew than to Tunisian Muslim, surely ? Maybe the reason is that every country where Islam is dominant in the Middle East defines itself negatively in opposition to Israel so "non-Israeli" = "Arab". And Jews (who themselves are an incredible mix), but at least share a common national ideal, lump all their neighbours together as "Arabs". That way the defining myth of the Middle East can comfortably continue - for Israelis, all their problems stem from being surrounded by a hostile "Arabo-Muslim" world that wants their destruction and all their neighbours can continue to entertain the convenient legend that all their problems stem from the hostile Jewish State. That way everyone one can avoid having to address the real social & political problems that plague them.

In the least, a significant decrease in popularity in Kadima, and a likely backlash against the so called policy of appeasement.. all eyes have been on the war, and its not over, looks like a bigger mess is on the way as nothing has been settled... the job didnt get done.. Im looking for a shifting of many from kadima into a new party, but I think that new partys' leader may come from Kadima. What of Likud, well there is a possibility some kadima support may go to LIkud, to me the things that needed to get done didnt. Politicians usually have to pay for their mistakes, lets see what happens..

I am the originatior of the name "Olmert's Folly". At least have the decency to credit me when you use it. I have also proven to be 100% right all along about this idiotic war.

I'm surprised how many people have the Napoleon's syndrom: they talk about IDF strategy as though thery know the situation as they know their kitchen... Please try to assume the IDF generals with their experience and expertise know better... Try to see the real outcome, which brought about downfall of hezbollah, secured the northern border and provide conditions for peace with Lebanon. Nothing more could be achieved under best of scenarios!

This the start and the rest will come soon. Don't under estmate the power of Arabs in war. They are more cleaver than you think.

I told you that -we will loose -this is not a war for us, they have 'unknown weapons" -we have to negociate, to give them back their prisoneers and return home ours -we have to leave shebba farms -we have to do peace with Syria, it is not impossible -we have to stop to be arrogant -we have to try to create "new" relationships with arabs -we have to take care of US mentality -we have to respect our neighboors -we have to understand the source of the problems of the ME area and try to solve it -we have to understand the arab mentality instead of changing it -we have to understand that if we give him a part of what they ask for, we will have peace -we have to understand that we have no choice, if we want PEACE -we have to help them in the subjects where the are in need (finance) -we are a minority -hizbullah is not a terrorist party, it is a restance created by our domination, a natural thing BELIEVE ME, WE HAVE TO RE-STUDY our subject -in summary, we have to give up our arrogant mentality thanks a lot for your attention

The Israeli military performed terribly well against apartment blocks, roads, bridges, tv stations, cars, buses and managed to kill 1000 civilians over a third of whom are children. However the army did badly against Hezbollah. Who is responsible for this blunder?