Yet another cluster bomb left after Israel’s second Lebanon war has exploded -tonight in Jerusalem. It was first thought that most of the damage would be done in the Prime Minister’s Office, but, as it turned out, the effect on the Headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was much more devastating. For this was an attack of historic proportions on the myth of Israel’s military invincibility.
The cluster bomb came in the form of the two-volume final report of the commission investigating Israel’s conduct of the Lebanon war in the summer of 2006, chaired by retired judge Eliahu Winograd - the so-called Winograd Report.
The Report consistently links military and political decision making, but in the end comes out much stronger against the military. It may be even possible to argue that, against all odds, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gets a passing grade.
As both the Chief of Staff at the time and the Defense Minister has left, it may be said that those responsible have been duly punished. But there’s more to it, much more. For the Report suggests that the inadequacies go back a long time and that the very structure of the decision making process, both military and political - and the link between them - is the real culprit. The myth has been shattered; Israel is in shock.
The implication is more urgent than just letting more heads roll. The real challenge is to try to restore the myth. Those in the know tell us that this has already begun to happen thanks to the efforts of the current Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and the present of Defense Ehud Barak. The IDF is recovering rapidly.
Barak, the leader of the Labor Party in Olmert’s coalition government, said earlier that he would decide whether or not to resign after the publication of the Winograd Report. The right-wing opposition parties now urge him to do so, because that’ll force new elections which will lead, they believe, to their leader Netanyahu forming the next government. But in view of Barak’s standing in Israel (a former Chief of Staff and its most decorated soldier) there’s much to suggest that he should stay and put the IDF right.
In view of Olmert’s passing grade in the Report, he may not have to resign on legal grounds, but it’s obvious that he should do so on moral grounds. A lot of unnecessarily bad things happened on his watch. But that would also lead to the fall of the government and Barak wouldn’t be able to finish his work. It would also postpone, probably indefinitely, the current peace efforts (such as they are). Therefore, even those who don’t share the views of Olmert supporters that the Prime Minister has been unjustly vilified and that the perpetrators should apologize to him, may believe that, given the current circumstances, it’s better to let Olmert stay than to have another election.
The Winograd Report isn’t edifying reading. It points to systemic incompetence all around that borders on scandalous irresponsibility. But there’s also some good news by implication: (1) the strength and self-confidence of the Israeli democracy that it’s prepared, as it were, to wash its dirty linen in public for the sake of truth and integrity, even if her enemies will gloat and take advantage; (2) evidence that Israel is determined to put things right in the IDF, perhaps also in the political decision making process.
The bomb may turn out to have been exactly what the country needs right now. Even if it won’t revive the myth, it’s bound to greatly strengthen Israel’s security.
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