Winograd Commission Report Lambasts Olmert Government's Management of the Lebanon War

Israel's Winograd Commission on the Summer 2006 Lebanon War has spoken, and its criticism of the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [photo left] is devastating. Israel National News summarizes the findings of the Winograd report. John Podheretz in the New York Post summarizes the findings even more succinctly:

"They didn't know what the hell they were doing.
That, in a nutshell, is the finding of an official Israeli investigation into the Jewish state's 32-day war against the terrorist group Hezbollah last summer."

Initially, Olmert resisted the calls for his resignation following release of the Winograd Commission report. However, as reported by the Jerusalem Post, even Olmert has admitted that he may not survive the political fallout of the report. Already, as also reported in the Jerusalem Post, Labor Party Secretary-General Eitan Cabel became the first minister to leave Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government in the wake of the Winograd Report; he said he hopes his move will trigger a chain reaction in the cabinet that will force Olmert to resign.

If the Kadima Party-led government falls, and new elections are called, the return of Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister is widely expected.

In the hope that The Hedgehog Blog will have little reason to print further photos of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert after his resignation, we conclude with one of Mr. Olmert having visible difficulty digesting the findings of the Winograd Commission report: