Lebanon war report won't topple Olmert, say allies

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Lebanon war report won't topple Olmert, say allies
Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:09am EST

By Ari Rabinovitch and Rebecca Harrison

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli report is expected
to criticize Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government
over the 2006 Lebanon war on Wednesday but his
allies said he would not quit and ruled out a snap
election.

"I tell you, there will be no elections," Finance
Minister Ronnie Bar-On, a member of Olmert's
centrist Kadima party, told supporters late on
Tuesday. "The prime minister is steadfast in this
position. No pressure campaign will change that."

The government-appointed panel investigating the
conduct of Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah
guerrillas in Lebanon is due to publish its final
report at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Wednesday.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL3049172672220080130

[Scurrilous]

1. Israeli Inquiry Finds ‘Grave Failings’ in ’06 War

<snip>

"In a widely anticipated judgment, a formal inquiry released on Wednesday found “grave failings” among political and military leaders during the 2006 Lebanon War, especially in their failure to decide what kind of war to fight.

But the inquiry was less scathing about the performance and motivations of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert than many expected, and he is likely to keep his post.

The war against Hezbollah was “a serious missed opportunity,” the inquiry concluded, in which “a semi-military organization of a few thousand men resisted, for a few weeks, the strongest army in the Middle East, which enjoyed full air superiority and size and technological advantages.”

But the inquiry decided that the government’s decision to launch a major ground invasion at the end of the war was “almost inevitable,” despite the deaths it caused, and that Mr. Olmert acted in the interests of the state, not out of partisan considerations.

This final report of the Winograd Commission, coming nine months after its harsh preliminary report and 17 months after the end of the war, contained few surprises or revelations."

more

[subsuelo]

2. Is this report at all critical of atrocities committed on the Lebanese?

Or is it mostly focused on the Israeli soldiers who may have died needlessly (during the ground war while a cease-fire was being negotiated) and the lack of decisive victory over Hezbollah?

The only mention the NYTimes makes of the Lebanese victims is in the final sentence in the article: "In the fighting, more than 1,000 Lebanese died, and more than 160 Israelis." Is it the same with this report?

[azurnoir]

3. It is the same report

In the English summary of the report I found numbers 4 and 5 particularly interesting, especially the last sentence

4. We have included in the classified version of the Report all the relevant facts we have found concerning the 2nd Lebanon war, systematically and in a chronological order. This presentation of the factual basis was an important part of our work. It is reasonable to assume that no single decision maker had access to a similar factual basis. In this task we had a unique advantage over others who have written about this war, since we had access to a lot of primary and comprehensive material, and the opportunity to clarify the facts by questioning many witnesses, commanders and soldiers, including bereaved families.

5. For obvious reasons, the unclassified Report does not include the many facts that cannot be revealed for reasons of protecting the state's security and foreign affairs. We tried, nonetheless, to balance between the wish to present the public with a meaningful picture of the events and the needs of security. We should note that we did not take the mere fact that some data has already been published in the media as a reason for including it in our unclassified Report.

[subsuelo]

5. The Amnesty Intl report

this is what I was talking about

[LeftishBrit]

4. On the one hand, I think the honourable thing would be to resign...

On the other hand, if he did, it might create an opening for the Likud to take over.