An Israeli commission of inquiry will issue a critique next month of
the Olmert government’s decision to launch the Lebanon war. The Winograd
Commission announced Tuesday that its interim findings would be published in
the second half of April and “draw conclusions” about how Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Israel’s top military brass handled the first days of the campaign against Hezbollah. If
Olmert and Peretz are found to have acted rashly in going to war over
Hezbollah’s abduction of two soldiers in a July 12 border raid, or to have
mishandled military strategy by initially relying on air and artillery
shelling rather than a ground assault, it could stoke public calls for their resignation. The government has defended its handling of the war, saying
Israeli forces drove Hezbollah from the border and made way for a bolstered
U.N. peacekeeping force.
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