“Israelis” remember casualties of summer war, flay absent Olmert for `failing` again

Source: AFP, 03-7-2007
KFAR GILADI, "Israel": Families of "Israeli" soldiers and settlers killed in last summer`s war began a series of memorials on Monday marking the first anniversary of the conflict under the Hebrew calendar. About 100 "Israelis" who knew the fallen soldiers gathered for a commemoration at the site of the war`s deadliest single Hizbullah rocket retaliation on northern "Israel" that killed 12 soldiers on August 6, 2006.
Mourners also expressed anger at the government and demanded the resignation of Premier Ehud Olmert, held responsible for failures during the war.
Elifaz Baeloa, father of one of the soldiers killed at Kfar Giladi, slammed Olmert for failing to attend any of Monday`s events.
"Just as he [Olmert] dodged responsibility during and after the war, he knew how to dodge this ceremony," he told the crowd of 100 people.
The Kfar Giladi rocket attack struck at the entrance of a cemetery, where 12 piles of rocks with the pictures of the 12 dead reserve soldiers are decked along the outer wall.
A small crater is still gouged out of the ground at the point where the rocket hit, next to a memorial stone with the rusty remains of the shell.
"This is still our struggle for the premier to take responsibility. Today we tie this struggle with our memory," another bereaved father, "Israel" Klausner, told the weeping crowd.
Opinion polls have shown that the Kfar Giladi attack marked a watershed event in "Israeli" public support for the war, which rapidly unraveled in the lead-up to a UN-brokered cease-fire on August 14.
Uzi Dayan, the former national security adviser who led a protest movement after the war, demanded again that Olmert resign, as have Dan Halutz and Amir Peretz, who were army chief of staff and defense (War) minister during the war.
"A year later, we still haven`t forgotten the failures of the war and the three responsible, of which one still remains in power," he told AFP.
"The prime minister has failed not only during the war but is continuing to fail because he doesn`t know how to fix what needs fixing after the war. He will go home," he added.
On June 17 this year, Palestinian militants in Lebanon fired two rockets into the industrial zone of nearby Kiryat Shmona, causing no casualties but underscoring fears in northern "Israel" that a fresh conflict could break out.