The Winograd Commitee which looked into the actions that evolved during the Second Lebanon War said the 2006 Lebanon campaign ended without victory, army did not provide effective response to Hizbullah rocket fire, inquiry commission head tells reporters. ‘Olmert acted in what he thought was the interest of the State of Israel,’ Winograd adds.
The committee called the war, which Israel launched against Hezbollah on July 12, 2006 after the militant group abducted two Israel Defense Forces soldiers and killed three others, a “major missed opportunity.”
“Israel embarked on a prolonged war that it initiated, which ended without a clear Israeli victory from a military standpoint,” Justice (ret.) Eliyahu Winograd told a press conference in Jerusalem.
However, Winograd added that “we are persuaded that both the prime minister, Ehud Olmert,and the defense minister, Amir Peretz, operated out of a strong and honest assessment and understanding of what, to them, was seen as necessary for Israel’s interests.”
Winograd also addressed the much-contested eleventh-hour ground incursion into southern Lebanon, ruling that the “last-minute ground offensive in Lebanon did not improve Israel’s position”.
We will now see what will be the outcome of the report as many Left wing politicians and reserve military groups call Olmert to resign.
