With the release Wednesday of the Winograd committee's final report on the Second Lebanon War, the focus has shifted to its political aftermath.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened Kadima ministers in Tel Aviv on Thursday morning to discuss the report. He was quoted as telling them that the report is broad and comprehensive and raises difficult questions. He said the government is in the midst of much activity.
The prime minister praised the soldiers and reservists who took part in the war. Directing comments to the bereaved families, Olmert said their loved ones did not die in vain.
Knesset member Avigdor Yitzhaki (Kadima) says he will quit the Knesset if it becomes clear that the Labor Party does not intend to leave the government or if changes are not made in the Kadima party leadership. Yitzhaki said that after reading the Winograd report closely, he believes its criticism of Prime Minister Olmert is even harsher than that levied in the panel's interim report.
In the Labor Party, opinions differ over whether the party should pull out of the government in the wake of the Winograd committee's report. Senior Labor officials convened at party headquarters in Tel Aviv to discuss the implications of the report. Party secretary Eitan Cabel, Knesset members Ophir Pines-Paz and Danny Yatom, and head of Labor's Young Guard, Eran Hermoni, are calling on party chairman Defense Minister Ehud Barak to pull Labor out of the coalition. But MK Ephraim Sneh says Labor cannot leave the government now, in part because of the security threats Israel faces.
Meanwhile, Amir Peretz, who stepped down as defense minister in the wake of the Second Lebanon War, called a news conference Thursday morning to give his response to the Winograd report. Peretz said that the commission's report contained no lessons learned from the Second Lebanon War -- only what was learned in the six years preceding it. - Reka Network Israel
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