Would criticism of Second Lebanon War end Olmert’s political career?
Posted By Amina Anderson
25/07/07
The 12th of July 2007 witnessed the start of what Israel calls the Second Lebanon War. A year later, a report by Israel’s State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss was issued to prove that the decision to attack the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah was one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's worst mistakes.
The month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which claimed the lives of more than 1,200 mostly civilian Lebanese and displaced almost 1 million people, ended under a UN-brokered ceasefire on the 14th of August 2006.
According to the Agence France Presse (AFP), the latest grim report stated that Olmert along with the government and army top brass "failed severely in the decision-making process, their assessment and their treatment of the home front during the Lebanon war. The severe failures, unfortunately, reached intolerable levels."
The war is considered a huge failure as it was unsuccessful in achieving Israel’s alleged goals of freeing the two soldiers who were seized by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid. Israel also didn’t crush Hezbollah during the conflict, the main aim of the war.
The criticism of the conflict started almost three months ago when a report was released by the Winograd committee, which called the war a "serious failure", pointing fingers to Olmert as well as former minister Amir Peretz, who resigned in June, and former army chief Dan Haultz, who quit in January.
The latest report also stated a list of fatal mistakes by the government during the conflict, condemning the lack of raid shelters for civilians, the shortage of warning systems which prevented alerts to local residents, and denouncing the failure of police and fire services. According to Radio Netherlands Worldwide, the report also criticized government officials, who abandoned their posts during the conflict, leaving civilians without any protection or help. Hospitals too lacked the additional protection against missile attacks which they are legally required to have.
The list of mistakes contained in the State Comptroller's document did not end there by any means. The report also showed that the war resulted in multiple environmental damages, especially the consequences of an attack by the Israeli Air Force in July against the Jiyeh power station, 30 kilometer south of Beirut, which resulted in the largest ever oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea, leaking an estimated 15,000 tons of oil.
In a bid to defend themselves, Olmert and his armed forces blamed the whole thing on previous governments and military leaders and therefore claimed that the State Comptroller can not and should not blame them for the mistakes of others.
This is not the first time that Lindenstrauss accused Olmert of corruption and wrong decisions. Earlier this year, accusations of bribery against the Israeli prime minister surfaced. In return, Olmert planned to launch a personal war against Lindenstrauss.
Multiple parties suggest that Olmert should be worried about his political future as he might be facing a future investigation over new corruption charges. Even though the latest war report will not immediately affect the government, its findings, along with the Wingrad inquiry, can limit the number of days of Olmert’s political career.
Perhaps one of the positive outcomes of all the criticism that Olmert faced is that he was encouraged to revive peace talks with the Syrians and the Palestinians, a move that many analysts say is wise for Olmert now in order to raise his all-time low approval ratings and stay in his position longer than expected.
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