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| By israelinsider staff April 30, 2007 |
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert failed "severely" in applying sound judgment, responsibility, and caution in his management of the Second Lebanon War, according to the long-awaited Winograd Commission's report, which was released to the public at 5 p.m. Monday afternoon.
The report, which is being released almost nine months after the war ended, claims the Prime Minister led Israel into a war on July 12 without first formulating a comprehensive plan.
The report states, "Olmert is responsible for going to war without a proper plan. He is responsible for the goals not being carefully and clearly set."
"We find the prime minister ministerially and personally responsible for the faulty decisions taken and the problems in the decision-making process," it says.
"The prime minister had formulated his opinion without being presented with a detailed plan, and without demanding that such a plan be presented, and therefore he could not have analyzed its details and approved it.
"Furthermore, he did not demand to be presented with genuine alternatives to his own opinions, or exhibit due skepticism regarding the military's positions. In this he failed.
"The prime minister also failed when he had his government approve such decisions ... and by declaring unattainable objectives to the war, and that the fighting should continue until they were achieved."
Members of the Winograd Commission arrived at Olmert's Jerusalem office at 4 p.m. on Monday -- one hour before the report's release to the public -- and gave the Prime Minister and Defense Minister Amir Peretz copies of the report, for their inspection before its publication.
Upon receiving a copy of the report, Olmert thanked the members for their hard work and assured them, "We will study the report and act immediately ... so that we can implement the lessons, fix the failures, and make sure that in any future scenario of the State of Israel, the failures you have indicted are corrected."
Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz also come under heavy criticism in the report. Peretz is charged with being uninformed about the condition of the IDF at the time. Halutz is criticized for entering the war "unprepared," and for failing to inform the government of the true condition of the IDF before launching the ground operation. |
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