MIDEAST: Israeli PM Olmert addresses nation after release of war interim report

Israel's Lebanon war inquiry commission levelled scathing criticism against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in an interim report on Monday (April 30) that cast doubt on the unpopular leader's political future. "We will act immediately to learn all that is needed in order to learn the lessons, to correct the failures and to ensure that in any future threat scenario against Israel, the difficulties and faults you cited will be corrected," Olmert said in broadcast remarks as he received a copy of the findings. The government-appointed Winograd panel found Olmert did not have a "well-processed plan" when he launched the air, sea and land campaign last July after Hezbollah guerrillas abducted two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, said the government-appointed chair of the commission Eliyahu Winograd. In a news conference held in Jerusalem just one hour after handing over the report to the Israeli leadership, Professor Ruth Gavison said there were very serious failings. "We impose primary responsibly for these failures on the prime minister, the minister of defence and the outgoing chief of staff," said Gavison. "All three made a decisive personal contribution to these decisions and the way in which they were made," Gavison said. The commission criticised what it called Olmert's severe failures in judgement in going to war. It was not immediately clear, as the panel's chairman made a statement on the report at a news conference whether it included a call for Olmert to quit. Later on Monday, Olmert told Israelis he would not resign but would work to correct mistakes. "It would not be right to quit and I have no intention of doing so," he said in a brief televised address to the nation on Monday evening. "This government made the decisions and this government will deal with correcting the defects." "This is a severe and difficult report and mistakes were made," the Israeli prime minister said. "There were failures among the main decision-makers and I lead them. We must draw lessons. We must correct defects and there are many." "I plan to act to correct all that needs fixing thoroughly and fast," Olmert said, adding that his cabinet would convene on Wednesday (May 2) and appoint a committee to examine the report. In the Lebanon war, 158 Israelis died, including 117 soldiers and 41 civilians. About 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon, including an estimated 270 Hezbollah gunmen. "It's a very thorough report, a very extensive one, and not a vegetarian report," said Israeli analyst for Janes Defence Weekly, Alon Ben David. "It's very harsh, the conclusions from a first read are very severe against the prime minister, defence minister and the former chief of staff. The question now is whether those two political personalities can survive this report, I believe they can. They can survive it, they can stay in office because there is not a political majority to remove the current government, but it's a very harsh report about the lack of leadership that Israel experienced during July 2006, mainly from the prime minister and the minister of defence, who hardly functioned according to that report," said Ben David.

ITN Source | May 1, 2007

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