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| A report that hits home: Rachel and Yehoshua Meshulami have been critical of how the Israeli military handled the 2006 Lebanon
war. A picture of their son, Amasa, killed in the war, hangs on their kitchen wall. Ilene R. Prusher |
Winograd Report revives Israeli anger over Lebanon war
Many families of Israeli victims in the 2006 conflict now plan to call for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's resignation.
from the January 31, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
But the judge, the head of a five-member panel appointed amid great public disappointment over the war, stopped short of putting blame on any one individual – Olmert included. He suggested that a decision about what to do with the findings lay in the public realm.
Others, however, have been quick to reach their own conclusions, insisting that every time the report mentions a failure of politics or policy, it points in Olmert's direction.
The Likud Party, which is headed by rightist leader Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement that Olmert should resign because the report outlines "grave failings" at the political level, meaning Olmert. Eitan Cabel, chairman of the Labor party, also said that he believes that the report indicates that Olmert should take personal responsibility for the war's failings, and resign.
The partial report released by the Winograd Commission in April 2007 is viewed as having been far less forgiving of Olmert, indicating that the prime minister displayed poor decision-making skills and lack of judgment.
During the war, on the night before Amasa's fatal fight, in which Hizbullah combatants blew up his tank, he called his father. As a newlywed and expectant father, he could have been excused. As an idealistic combat soldier, he felt that would be wrong.
"He was asking for my blessing. He asked me, is it right to go to this battle?" recalls Meshulami, as his wife fries mushroom patties in a skillet for dinner, with the rain beating at the windows of their trailer home.
"I told him, it's not your job to decide," says Meshulami. He now feels he sent his son to rely on senior army commanders who weren't as cautious and professional as they should have been about sending the troops into a "killing field," he says.
"My job is to bring up my son and strengthen him. Did they not do their homework?" he asks, throwing up his hands. "It was childishness to send our sons into an area which was so dangerous, and which they didn't know enough about. They didn't have the backup forces they needed. We hope that at least this sacrifice will bring the change we need. We want the [Israel Defense Forces] to take full responsibility and move forward."
The Meshulamis are no fans of Olmert or his Kadima Party, which was set up by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as part of his decision to withdraw from Gaza in August 2005.
After being moved out of the Gaza settlement of Netzarim, they moved as a group inside Israel, to a place called Yivul, somewhere near the Gaza border. Meshulami, a chicken farmer, says the community there wasn't zoned for chicken coops, and so three months ago, they decided to move here – an illegal settlement outpost.
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