Meir had been prime minister during the 1973 Yom Kippur War and Israelis furious over the mishaps then forced her out of office. Now their sons were in the army, the war with Hezbollah was mishandled, and one of the signs carried under the blazing sun at the Mount Herzl Cemetery read: "Olmert, learn from Golda."

"I grieve not only for having lost you (my son) but also over an entire state... (whose) leaders cannot assume responsibility, say, 'we have erred and therefore have to go home,'" lamented Elifaz Baeloha of Karmiel. His son, Nadav, was killed in Lebanon on July 20.

Several protest movements emerged following the month-long war with Hezbollah. Some comprised reservists who fought in Lebanon, experienced the confusions, changing orders, mistaken commands that cost lives, and the faulty preparations for the war.

One veteran group focuses on fighting government corruption. Some want Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and military Chief of General Staff Dani Halutz to quit while others are pressing for a state commission of inquiry that would thoroughly examine the mishaps. The government has no control over such a committee, once it is commissioned.

Another group comprises friends of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, whom Palestinians kidnapped in June and the two reservists Hezbollah kidnapped in July, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. This group is demanding Israeli troops stay in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah surrenders Goldwasser and Regev to the Lebanese government.

It is not clear how much support these groups have.

Israeli media has been giving them a lot of attention reflecting what Haifa University political communications expert, Prof. Gabriel Weiman, called, "The wave of self criticism and self-flagellation" that has overtaken the country.

However, only few hundred people were at Meir's gravesite and a few hundreds were in the shade of the Rose Garden, opposite the Knesset and the Prime Minister's Office.

The reservists, using a megaphone, have been urging people to sign a petition calling for Olmert, Peretz and Halutz to resign but would not say how many people actually signed it. Rony Zvigenboim, one of the organizers, said he did not know the figure.

Potentially these movements could be very effective. They are non-partisan grassroots movements. The discharged reservists have just returned from the battlefront and there is concern that the cease-fire is just a temporary lull before something worse happens, possibly involving Iran.

"There are people here from all walks of life. That's why the campaign will succeed," predicted reservist Gidi Kalman, 33.

Olmert, Halutz and Peretz should not go home "because they are not suitable politically, but because they are responsible (for the way the war was managed) for having failed to manage the war," he added.

Weiman noted these movements are in their "very early stages" so they could develop or fizzle out. But there is no question that Israelis are highly critical of their leadership.

A public opinion poll conducted for the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, showed Friday 63 percent of its respondents said Olmert ought to resign. Defense Minister Peretz faired worse: Seventy four percent said he should quit.

Support for the government plummeted in the past week as reservists came home and related their experiences. That led to loss of confidence in the government and hence loss of its authority. Sixty-nine percent of the respondents justified the reservists' criticism, the poll found.

All this means that barring an extremely dramatic event the government will have no choice but to order through investigations into the political and military echelon's actions during the war and the latter's preparations for it.

The former director of military intelligence, retired Maj. Gen. Uri Saguy, said Friday the military operation was conducted in an "embarrassing way" and the final stages were "pathological," Israel Radio reported.

If elections were held now, Olmert's government would have crashed, the poll showed. His Kadima Party would have lost some 12 of its 29 mandates and be the second or third biggest party in the Knesset after the hardline Likud of former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and with the same number of seats as that of the hardline Israel Beitenu. Peretz's Labor would have dropped to the fourth slot.

National elections were held in March and so far there is no strong demand for early elections.

According to the poll 27 percent of the respondents want them, but 20 percent would like to see an emergency government that would encompass a broad spectrum of Israeli parties. Others would like the government to coopt right wing parties, some say left wing factions and others want it to remain as it is.

If Olmert falls the government will go with him and that might lead to early elections. However, Kadima could nominate another candidate for prime minister who would try to form a coalition. With Olmert's plan for a unilateral partial withdrawal from the West Bank dead, at least for the time being, Kadima might win partners on the right side of the political spectrum.

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