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| By israelinsider staff and partners April 29, 2007 |
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Senior Israeli government officials are bracing themselves for the release Monday of The Winograd Committee's findings on the execution of last summer's Second Lebanon War.
Some of the committee's findings were leaked to Israel's Channel 10, which broadcast them during the Saturday evening news, sending aides to Olmert and Peretz into a damage-control frenzy.
Channel 10 claimed on Saturday that the final chapter of the report describes Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a passive leader who was led by the nose by the army and who did not take charge of the war he was supposed to be commanding.
The report also said the committee blames Olmert for failing to put into action emergency plans drawn up long before the war. Olmert opposed a ground attack into Lebanon because he feared there would be heavy casualties, but he did not recommend any solid alternative due to a severe lack of careful planning.
According to the committee, the war was terribly mismanaged and important decisions were made hurriedly due to the ensuing blunders.
According to the report, The Winograd Committee faults the decision-making process during the war and said it was the leadership was not at the standard necessary to manage during an emergency situation.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz
Defense Minister Amir Peretz was accused of failing to make up for his lack of military experience and failing to use all the defense resources available to aid him, the report claimed. According to the committee, rather than consulting the defense ministry, Peretz organized a separate forum so that he was managing the war without any of the important information necessary for running the war successfully.
The committee added that Peretz's decision to run the war this way was made for entirely selfish reasons and even suggested that he was mistaken in accepting the position of defense minister.
Former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz
According to Saturday evening's report, former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz was slammed for being arrogant, underestimating the threat and danger posed by Katyusha rocket attacks on Israel, and for ignoring criticism and advice within the military. Halutz is also blamed for not providing the government with alternatives during the war.
According to Ynetnews, a senior military source said that despite Halutz's resignation, the Winograd report may also implicate senior IDF officers who followed Halutz without protest, including army officers who are still in service. According to military sources, those officers may be forced to resign after the release of the report.
Right, left call for Prime Minister's resignation
MKs, regardless of their political views, call for Olmert's immediate resignation.
Likud chairman, MK Benjamin Netanyahu, and Meretz chairman, MK Yossi Beilin, privately discussed the report on Friday. They agreed that new elections were very possible and agreed that Olmert must not remain Prime Minister.
According to MK Beilin, "Olmert's fate will be similar to that of Golda Meir's after the Yom Kippur war," referring to Meir's resignation after a consensus that the war had been a failure.
MK Effie Eitam (Nationa Union-NRP) called for new elections saying that, "the commission's conclusions on Olmert, Peretz and Halutz's failures verify the public's feeling that the government had failed and that it should resign."
Olmert won't resign
The Prime Minister's aides said Sunday, that Olmert does not intend to quit, no matter what the repercussion of the release of the report.
On Saturday night the Prime Minister's Office issued a statement saying they had not yet seen the report and did not know what it contained.
Olmert and Peretz are expected to give official statements on the report on Monday afternoon, after the release of the committee's report.
Stan Goodenough of Jerusalem Newswire contributed to this article. |
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