A Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on the Second Lebanon War was interrupted Monday by reservists accusing it of a coverup.
The reservists accused Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi of authoring a report that covered up the government's accountability for failures during the war and attempted to blame the military. The soldiers criticized Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for remaining in office following the war despite crashing popularity and repeated calls by opposition members to resign.
Likud MK and former committee head Yuval Steinitz said that the committee’s report and the upcoming report of the Winograd Commission should include recommendations that the Defense Minister and Prime Minister each resign. Former Mossad intelligence head and Labor MK Dani Yatom agreed with the reservists, saying the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee report does not hold the political echelon accountable.
The report, released noon Monday, states that Israel's conduct during the war was marked by unclear strategy, poor communication between military divisions, and logistical errors.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded to the reservists’ criticism during the weekly meeting of the Labor Party, pointing the finger at the political echelon in a veiled criticism of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s report.
“The responsibility of the IDF during the war was clear,” Barak said. “The IDF carried out a painful investigation and applied lessons learned even without the Winograd report. Thousands of soldiers fought with valor and 119 of them paid with their lives. We are proud of all of them. The responsibility is also on the political echelon, even if the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee decided it isn’t.”
Malkah Fleisher contributed to this report