GAZA/JERUSALEM, 1 May 2007 — A government commission yesterday blasted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and top army brass for “serious failure” in handling the Lebanon war, dealing a heavy blow to his flagging leadership.
Reading from partial findings of an investigation, retired Judge Eliyahu Winograd held Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz principally responsible for the failures of the 34-day conflict.
“If each or anyone of those would have acted better, the decisions and the results of the war would have been different or better,” Winograd said of the conflict that began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12. “The prime minister made up his mind hastily, despite the fact that no detailed military plan was submitted to him and without asking for one,” despite his lack of experience in foreign policy and military affairs.
He accused Olmert of not adequately considering political and professional reservations presented to him, and held him responsible for not clearly setting out goals after ordering military action against Hezbollah. “He made a personal contribution to the fact that the declared goals were over-ambitious and not feasible,” the report said and blamed him for failing to adapt his plans once it emerged Israel’s actions were not realistic.
“All of these add up to a serious failure in exercising judgment, responsibility and prudence,” said the report. The report was equally scathing about Peretz, a former trade unionist whose previous military experience was limited to national service, charging that he failed in his job.
“The minister of defense failed in fulfilling his functions. Therefore, his serving as minister of defense during the war impaired Israel’s ability to respond well to its challenges,” the report said. Winograd also blamed Halutz, who resigned over the war in January, of being inadequately prepared, of not properly alerting the political echelon and responding impulsively to the deadly cross-border raid on July 12.
“The chief of staff failed in his duties as commander in chief of the army and as a critical part of the political-military leadership, and exhibited flaws in professionalism, responsibility and judgment,” it said.
In another development, Israel’s nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu was convicted yesterday by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court of violating a military order prohibiting him from talking to foreign nationals. He was also convicted of attempting to leave Jerusalem in the direction of West Bank city of Bethlehem, said Israeli media sources.
The court accepted most of the indictment’s clauses, save those relating to Vanunu’s Internet correspondence with foreign nationals, the evidence for which was rejected by the court as inadmissible. It appears that most of Vanunu’s conversations with foreign citizens were phone conversations, and that that foreigners that he met with were all members of the media.
