Olmert under fire for `intolerable` failures
Source: Agencies, 19-7-2007
"Israeli" Premier Ehud Olmert faced fresh criticism Wednesday of his handling of the war in Lebanon, as a state audit accused him of failing to adequately protect "Israeli" civilians (settlers) from rocket attacks. In a scathing report, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss said Olmert, along with 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," by not considering how Hizbullah`s rockets could paralyze northern "Israel" when it launched a war last July 12.
Close to a million "Israelis" living near the border with Lebanon were "not substantively protected against missile strikes" by Hizbullah, though "Israeli" officials had foreseen the risk of such attacks, the report says.
Olmert`s office slammed the remarks as unfounded personal views by Lindenstrauss.
Olmert also accused the comptroller of shooting "poison arrows" by singling him out for failures for which previous "Israeli" governments were also to blame.
His office said most of the shortcomings cited in the report have been corrected, adding it was unreasonable to lay all the blame on a government that had been in a power just a few months when war broke out.
Aside from Olmert, Lindenstrauss pointed the finger at former Defense (War) Minister Amir Peretz, former army chief Dan Halutz and home-front commander Yitzhak Gershon.
"The leaders of the country invested most of their time in the war efforts, and not in treating the home front which was exposed to extensive attack from the outset of the war," said the 582-page report, which Lindenstrauss presented to the speaker of Parliament.
In "Israel", both the government and army are responsible for providing services to civilians in time of war, from maintenance of public shelters, to rescue, medical and basic administrative services.
The report said bomb shelters were lacking or inadequate and emergency measures were not organized in advance of the fighting "Israel" launched in response to Hizbullah`s capture of two soldiers.
Those "Israeli" towns populated mostly by Arab citizens (1948-Palestinians), where rockets fired from Lebanon also struck, had virtually no shelters at all at their disposal, the report says.
"The serious failings unfortunately amounted to abject failure in the handling of the civilian home front during the war."
Some 1,200 Lebanese and 157 "Israelis" were killed in the 34-day war that ended in mid-August with a UN-brokered truce.
During the conflict, Hizbullah fired over 4,000 rockets into northern "Israel", forcing a million residents to flee, paralyzing the northern part of the country and catching the public-shelters system unawares.
Wednesday`s report comes two-and-a-half months after interim findings by the Winograd government inquiry into the war, which blasted Olmert for "serious failure," and Peretz and Halutz for failing in their duties.
The Winograd commission is due to publish its final findings later this year, which are expected to further pile up the pressure on Olmert to resign over the conflict that many in "Israel" consider a failure.
Halutz resigned from his post in January, while Peretz lost his after he was ousted as leader of the Labor party in June. But Olmert has resisted the pressure, arguing he had to first address the mistakes exposed during the war.
In a briefing to reporters Tuesday, the head of Olmert`s office, Raanan Dinur, conceded that the war revealed shortcomings, but insisted that the Cabinet, which took office less than three months before it began on July 12, should not bear the brunt of blame.
"No one can argue that the prime minister could within two months fix all the shortcomings which the report reveals which require long years," he said.
In his report, Lindenstrauss admitted that successive "Israeli" governments did not "fulfill their duty on the home front throughout the years as required." But the handling by Olmert`s Cabinet of the settler defenses "were in most cases responsive and not initiated, partial, inadequate and often extremely late." This "left a vacuum on the home front and left the settlers of the north exposed, vulnerable and defenseless at the hardest time," Lindenstrauss said.
In its reaction, the army said the recommendations in the state comptroller`s reports are already "in an advanced stage of implementation."
Parliament Speaker Dalia Itzik said the harsh findings were a result of years of neglect by a series of governments, and that the faults must be remedied quickly.
"The power of this report is not in its past, but in its future," she said.
Olmert has a long-standing rivalry with Lindenstrauss, whom he accuses of conducting a personal witch hunt against him.
In April, Lindenstrauss accused Olmert of using his influence to steer a government grant to a colleague while he was trade minister in 2001.
Olmert also has been accused of shady real-estate deals and improperly intervening in a bank privatization deal.
He has been charged with no crimes and has denied wrongdoing in all the cases.