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Olmert addresses mayors, and the nation, from Haifa. (AP)
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Comb-over or Cover-up? Olmert addresses Cabinet Sunday morning (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 29, 2006 |
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced an inquiry Monday into the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, hoping to dispel criticism that the army and government bungled the campaign but falling short of demands for an independent probe with the authority to dismiss top officials.
The decision further enraged critics who say that Olmert and other leaders should be the focus of the probe, not the ones appointing the investigators.
Olmert said he understood that authorizing an external probe would have been politically expedient. "But this is not what the country needs," he said.
"We do not have the luxury of sinking into years of investigations into the past," he added. "What we need is an effective, professional inquiry, to examine the issues in depth, draw conclusions and learn lessons."
He also said a lengthy probe could paralyze the army, and he did not want to subject it to a "collective flogging."
The Israeli public has been clamoring for a serious investigation into the 34-day war, launched on July 12 hours after Hezbollah guerrillas killed three Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two others in a cross-border raid.
The government has been criticized for accepting a U.N.-brokered cease-fire without crushing Hezbollah or winning the release of the two captured soldiers.
Soldiers returning from the fighting in Lebanon have complained about confused battle plans, poor training and shortages of food, water and equipment. The deaths of 33 soldiers in a last-minute ground offensive just before a truce took hold -- along with news that the army chief sold his stock portfolio in the early hours of the fighting -- have only deepened the public outrage.
Cabinet minister Eitan Cabel, a member of the Labor Party, criticized Olmert, saying an official inquiry was needed to heal the country.
"It's the only way to clean up the rift that has opened between Israeli society and the administration of which I am a part, between the reserve soldiers and the military's senior command," Cabel told Israel TV.
In his speech, Olmert defended the war, saying Israel inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah. He described the cease-fire, which calls for a beefed-up international force to help police the border, as a major diplomatic success.
He also said the ground offensive, launched just as the cease-fire agreement was taking form, was "inevitable," despite the heavy Israeli casualties. He said the offensive put pressure on the United Nations to approve the cease-fire.
But, taking responsibility for the decision to go to war, Olmert conceded "not everything is good."
He said Israel failed to prevent Hezbollah from launching thousands of Katyusha rockets into Israel, described the "indescribable sorrow" he felt for the deaths of Israelis, and noted the two soldiers remain in Hezbollah captivity. "The government of Israel and I, at its head, will spare no effort to get them and bring them home," he said.
"We did not always achieve the results we hoped for. Not everything worked. There were incidents. There were deficiencies. There were also failures," he said.
The investigatory commission will be headed by Nahum Admoni, who headed Israel's Mossad spy agency during the 1980s. Legal experts and former military men will also be on the panel, Olmert said.
Olmert said the commission will be charged with "examining the performance of the government, its proceedings and decision-making and anything else it sees fit. The government will not be exempt from professional examination and criticism."
Olmert said a second panel, headed by Israel's state comptroller, will look at management of the civilian side of the war, such as delivering aid to northern towns hit by rocket fire.
The committees will work alongside a third investigation, appointed by Defense Minister Amir Peretz, to look into the military's handling of the war. That committee, headed by a former army chief and comprised of ex-military men, has been criticized as toothless. It suspended work after just one meeting, waiting for guidance from Olmert.
Critics have been demanding a full-blown judicial "state inquiry," with the authority to fire officials. Israel has carried out such inquiries after past crises, including the 1982 war in Lebanon. That query led to the dismissal of then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon.
Soldiers returning from Lebanon and parents of soldiers killed in battle have been among the most vocal critics. Hundreds of reservists have signed a petition calling on Olmert, Peretz and others to step down, and a small group of reservists has launched an open-ended protest outside Olmert's office in Jerusalem, demanding his resignation.
Lior Dimanez, one of the leaders of the reservists' protest movement, said the new investigation was not sufficient. "It's unthinkable that those to be questioned will appoint the interrogators," he told Israel TV. "It's simply a continuation of the spin, the spin that started with the war and is continuing now.
The AP contributed to this report.
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