Pressure grew on embattled Israeli leader Ehud Olmert after the publication of his testimony to a government-appointed panel investigating Israel’s humiliating defeat by Hezbollah during Lebanon war last summer.
Instead of accepting responsibility for Israel's failure during the 34-day conflict, the prime minister blamed the army and its chief, Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, who has already resigned over the army’s mishandling of the war.
"I think the army disappointed itself to a large degree," the prime minister told the Winograd Commission. "Something in the command and control concept did not meet expectations and undoubtedly led to a disparity between what we were capable of achieving and what we actually achieved."
Olmert also said that Halutz had told him that the armed forces were strong "and ready to carry out any mission,” adding that a prime minister could not be "a field commander" and had to depend on the army for expert assessments.
"I believe, I still believe today, that my approach was correct," he testified.
The Winograd report, released earlier this month, concluded that Olmert launched the war hastily without a comprehensive plan, and accused him of being guilty of "serious failure in exercising judgment, responsibility and prudence”.
The commission – whose criticism was mainly directed at the prime minister, Halutz and defense minister Amir Peretz, who already announced that he would step down – didn’t focus on the war crimes committed during the war that forced one-quarter of the Lebanese population to escape their homes, but rather on Israel’s embarrassment at failing to achieve its goal of crushing Hezbollah, which dealt a major blow to Israel’s image as the region’s best-equipped military.
Israel’s brutal offensive in Lebanon claimed the lives of more than 1,200 mostly civilian Lebanese, flattened huge parts of densely populated southern Beirut and severely damaged many smaller towns in southern Lebanon. On the other hand, about 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers have been killed.
For many Israelis, the scathing report confirms what they had thought for the past ten months: a war led by bungling leaders, who failed to crush Hezbollah or retrieve two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in July, an excuse Israel used to launch the war.
Insisting that he was best-placed to fix mistakes highlighted by the report, Olmert, whose approval ratings sunk to unprecedented lows, has weathered a protest rally by at least 100,000 Israelis demanding his resignation, silenced calls by his allies to step down and survived three no-confidence motions in parliament.
But the 89-page transcript of the prime minister’s testimony triggered renewed calls for his resignation.
Zevulun Orlev, a legislator from the opposition National Religious Party, accused Olmert of trying to evade responsibility by placing blame on the army. "He should take responsibility now for his failings and resign," he said.
The prime minister also faces the possible fracture of his coalition following a May 28 leadership election in the Labour Party. Two top Labour candidates have threatened to end its political partnership with Olmert's centrist Kadima party over the Winograd report.
Analysts say the key reason Olmert survived this far is the lack of agreement among the many parties calling for his resignation. The huge rally held earlier this month in Tel Aviv, for example, was organized by 11 different political parties, but no politician was invited to address the crowd for fear that this would offend the others.
“There were people from the left and right, religious and secularists, Orientals and Ashkenazim, settlers and peace activists, young (many young) and elderly,” left commentator Uri Avnery wrote of the rally. “At one point, I passed [Israeli parliament member] Effi Eitam, whom I consider the No. 1 fascist in Israel, and who may well consider me the No. 1 Destroyer of Israel. We ignored each other, but we were both there.”
However, the vast majority of those who want Olmert’s ouster agree that Israel had the right to invade Lebanon. What angered them most is the army’s failure to accomplish its mission and liquidate Hezbollah.
What’s more interesting is that the mainstream media, especially in the U.S., praised the Tel Aviv rally as a sign of “the health of [Israel’s] democracy,” in the words of the Time magazine; an ambiguous claim that came at the same time that Israel announced charges against Azmi Bishara, the most senior Arab Israeli leader and a Knesset member, of aiding Hezbollah during the war. The accusations have forced Bishara into exile while he fights to prove his innocence.
Bishara denies the charges, which could lead to life imprisonment or the death penalty, insisting that he is being persecuted for speaking against Israel’s policies. But the Israeli government considers him guilty for saying that Israel cannot be a democracy unless it becomes a state of all its citizens.
Israel defines itself as a Jewish state, ignoring the fact that 20 percent of the population are Palestinians, who unfortunately are being treated as second-class citizens.
Unfortunately, such discriminatory policies lead to one conclusion; whether Olmert survives the fallout or not, Israel’s apartheid would remain.
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