*Israel: Where is the shame?* * Damning war report puts Olmert on the brink
Ehud Olmert was under growing pressure yesterday to resign after media leaks that an inquiry committee into last summer's Lebanon war is to blame the Israeli Prime Minister for the failure to cut Hizbollah down to size or to bring home the two soldiers whose abduction provoked the 34-day conflict. Also in the line of fire of the committee, whose report is published today, are Amir Peretz, the Defence Minister, and the former military commander Dan Halutz. The committee, chaired by Eliahu Winograd, a retired judge, is said to have accused them of acting "hastily and injudiciously". Mr Olmert, 61, remained defiant last night, despite the first signs of defection among his Labour coalition partners. Ofir Pines, a former minister, told Army Radio: "I expect the Prime Minister and Defence Minister to stand up and take responsibility and resign." Two other Labour backbenchers, Ami Ayalon and Danny Yatom, both retired generals, called on their party to pull out of the coalition. The Prime Minister is isolated. General Halutz has already resigned and Mr Peretz is expected to be ousted as Labour leader in party primaries next month. The defence ministry went with the job. Mr Olmert declined to address the Winograd committee's findings yesterday, though he himself appointed the committee. He preferred to beam a message of "business as usual" and told his Kadima Party colleagues: "We cannot discuss what has been leaked. We shall wait for the report, study it and then respond." Sources said he had no intention of quitting or dodging responsibility. He would go on trying to persuade Israelis that he had made the right decisions. They have refused to be convinced. A poll published yesterday in the Ma'ariv daily newspaper found only 2.3 per cent of voters supporting his premiership. More than 20 per cent thought that Theodor Herzl, the father of political Zionism who died in 1904, would do it better. Members of Mr Olmert's Kadima, a centrist party founded by Ariel Sharon 18 months ago, began to speculate on how and when he might be replaced. "Kadima is not Olmert," one of them warned, "and he will not take it down with him." The committee is not expected to demand resignations. Its findings are reported to be neither white nor black. Politicians were waiting to see how dark a grey the official 250-page text would be. Tzipi Livni, the Foreign Minister and now the most favoured candidate to succeed Mr Olmert, was keeping a low profile, although her friends have hinted that she is ready to take over when the time is right. Other ministers were cautious, fearing that they would also be held to account. Mr Olmert's aides have reminded them that they voted unanimously to go to war. Meir Sheetrit, the Housing Minister, said: "I have seen enough governments eulogised prematurely. It's too early." Yossi Verter, the political correspondent for the liberal dailyHa'aretz, said that Mr Olmert's future would be decided by the people in the street. "Not the politicians, not even the media, will decide the Prime Minister's fate," he wrote. "The bereaved families will speak their mind; so will the reservists. They will try to topple the government, or at least remove the Prime Minister." The critics are planning a protest vigil opposite the Prime Minister's Jerusalem office and a demonstration in a Tel Aviv square. Israel lost 117 soldiers and 41 civilians during the war. According to the media leaks, the committee condemns Mr Olmert for letting the defence establishment dictate policy; failing to ask how they intended to achieve their objectives; and waiting too long to launch a major ground attack that might have stopped Hizbollah's Katyusha rocket barrage on Israeli civilian targets, which continued until the last day of hostilities. By Eric Silver in Jerusalem The Independent April 30, 2007 -- Ends .
