The Israeli media is behaving as if it had a vested interest in stemming the protests for a national committee of inquiry into the war. At first, the demonstrations and sit-ins were hidden in the back pages of the newspapers. TV coverage was minimal, and when it did happen it emphasized the "small number of demonstrators" and used phrases like "determined but few" to describe them.

But the rage that Israelis feel and the frustration with an obtuse government is not dying down. Yes, most of the people of Israel are busy with their own lives - the hardships imposed on them by "officialdom" keeps them busy working to keep their heads above water. People whose homes were demolished by Katusha rockets have not seen any type of compensation yet, not even a cent. The businesses, which are required by law to pay workers' salaries for the days during the war that the workers did not come to work, are paying the salaries but have not yet seen even a single shekel of the compensation the government promised them for this. Yes, loans have been made available to all. Loans at the regular interest rates, through the banks, making the banks even richer than before. (The banks recorded unprecedented profits for the first six months of 2006.)

The people of Israel are angry at the outrageous behavior of the people elected to represent them; at the ineptitude of the army, officialdom, and government services; at the revolving door of government and money; and at the inability of the Israeli leadership to lead, to clean the atmosphere, and to put things right as they promised prior to the elections.

The public is not demanding a national committee of inquiry because it expects the committee will find out anything that isn't already known. A committee of inquiry has the power to tell the leadership to go home. It has the power to get Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz to resign and to bring in new forces - people who are untainted, unconnected, and do not have vested economic interests.

On Saturday evening, the people gathered in Tel Aviv to demonstrate. Yes, the demonstration will be played down. But it happened. Thousand of people were there. And the number of protesters will keep on growing.