ERUSALEM — With sporadic violence straining a fragile cease-fire in Gaza, there is increasing unease in Israel about the results of its war against the Islamic Hamas movement, and the man polls indicate could be Israel's next leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been quick to echo the public mood.
"I'm sorry to say we haven't gotten the job done," the former prime minister, known for his hawkish views on peace talks, said in a radio interview Thursday. "It is clear that Hamas is rearming, clearly it is hitting us, clearly it is testing us. The next government will have no choice but to finish the job and uproot ... the Iranian terror base."
The tough talk jibes well with the postwar sentiment in Israel. Many people say the military should have gone further in crippling Hamas, and public opinion polls are showing strong support for right-wing parties like Netanyahu's Likud in the run-up to Israel's election on Feb. 10.
"Whenever there's a war there is a shift to the right, and some people believe there was a missed opportunity here," said Avraham Diskin, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-israel-netanyahu_bdfeb01,0,7400262.story
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