It followed a front-page campaign spread over several days by YediothAhronoth, the country's largest-selling newspaper, stridently arguingagainstanIsraeliattack.
Three opinion polls published on Tuesday, for the YediothAhronoth, Haaretz and Maariv newspapers, all suggested that Mr Sharon's defection from Likud leaves him well placed to win a third term as prime minister.
Israeli anger at being embroiled in this business is reflected in a series of articles in YediothAhronoth (a newspaper that sells more than all other Israeli papers put together) criticising the government for having no Lebanese policy.
While the exact meaning of that statement is unclear, an indication of what the general - and his boss, the Commander-in-Chief - have in mind might have been the subject of a report in the Israeli newspaper YediothAhronoth.