The final chapter in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's demise is now being played out. After the cabinet finally allowed the army to launch the massive land operation that would have encircled southern Lebanon in three days and changed the rules in the region dramatically, Olmert halted the operation. At first, he did so for 24 hours. Then, for another 48 hours. And now, he has extended it for an undefined period.

In the meantime, he is putting his efforts into reaching a diplomatic agreement. However, the outline of the U.S.-French agreement that will be put before the U.N. Security Council contains the seed for Israel's next war with Lebanon. According to the agreement, the Lebanese army, accompanied by 2,500 French soldiers, will take up positions in southern Lebanon and keep the Hizbullah at bay. The return of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers will be "negotiated in the future," and Israel will withdraw from its positions in Lebanon. Though the agreement says southern Lebanon will be demilitarized, it says nothing about disarming the Hizbullah - something that the United Nations had agreed to the last time Israel withdrew from Lebanon. Olmert is such a lame duck that the Lebanese have already announced that they do not accept the agreement because it does not call for an Israeli withdrawal first.

The Israeli public accepted the need to go to war. The thousands of reservists called up are ready to fight, to pay with their lives if necessary. They have left families and jobs, put their lives on hold, and are ready to do whatever is necessary. What they are not ready to do is to fight a phony battle. Being stopped time and again as they march into Lebanon because Olmert can't get his act together is unacceptable to them. Both soldiers in the regular army and reservists have made it clear that if the state wants them to fight, then they will. They can go in there, ferret out the bunkers and missiles, kill the enemy, and put an end to this. And they are ready to do this for as long as it takes. What the soldiers are not ready to do, however,  is to be stationed like sitting ducks along the Israeli-Lebanese border, waiting for Olmert to make up his mind.

The rising sentiment in the Israeli public is that Olmert has to go. Even if, by chance, the merchants of Beirut - the Lebanese government - manage to give him the opportunity to fight, and the wrath of the Israeli army is allowed to fall on Lebanon, Olmert's hesitation at a time when tough decisions had to be made will not be forgotten. The time has come for him to go home.