And, after the announcement of the weekend delay to let the UN work its way, the columnist Ari Shavit wrote in Haaretz :"You cannot lead an entire nation to war promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and remain in power."

Ben Caspit, a columnist for Maariv, agreed that it would be difficult for Olmert to stay in office: "The public in Israel will not keep silent about this month without reaching a victory or exacting an appropriate price."

And Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the conservative Likud party, is bestirring himself as he begins to take calculated potshots at the government for its management of the war, now that the smoke is clearing enough for him to develop risk-free hindsight.

But the slowness of Israel’s advance against Hezbollah was, given the flatfooted ground offensive, to be expected, much like our own difficulty in neutralizing the insurgents in Iraq. Security officials blame the delay on Hezbollah’s bunkers, which are fortified with cement, electrified, and well-stocked with weapons and food.

As if these “into the breach” complications on the Lebanese front aren’t enough, the Palestinian guerillas must still be dealt with.

The worst effect is, Israel’s hesitant assault on Hezbollah may give its other arch enemies with dire power, Syria and Iran, false confidence that they can launch an attack and actually rid themselves of the thorn in the toe of their own incompetent governance.

Insightful observers understand the provocation by Hezbollah that initiated the war was mainly motivated, not only by its admitted goal of using the kidnapped soldiers as bargaining chips to obtain the release of many of its members in Israeli jails, but also by its anxious need to justify its existence, along with the present need of Iran, its banker and arsenal, to provide a distraction from its nuclear dilemma.

In the end, Israel must do whatever it takes to survive and, if luck will allow, to live in peace with its neighbors, uncomfortable with the detente as either side may be.

Despite every ethical person’s abhorrence of war and its wages, history shows quite consistently that in this flagrantly treacherous world a nation needs, in times of treachery, leaders who are made of armor-hard and aggressive, if not outright mean, stuff.