Olmert under fire over scathing Lebanon war report
A government-sanctioned commission that probed Israel’s summer war against Lebanon’s Hezbollah accused Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday of “severe failure” over his handling of the 34-day conflict.
Citing a “severe failure in judgment, responsibility and caution”, the panel said Olmert hastily led the country to war without a comprehensive plan.
Israel used Hezbollah’s capture of two of its soldiers last July as an excuse to launch a deadly offensive in Lebanon, in which more than 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis were killed.
A UN-brokered ceasefire ended the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in August, with Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah declaring a strategic victory over Israel.
Israel’s failure to retrieve the two captured soldiers, crush Hezbollah or halt its daily cross-border rocket attacks during the war led the Israelis to view the war as a failure, sending Olmert’s approval ratings to unprecedented lows and triggering widespread calls for his resignation.




