Winograd report leaves Olmert thick-skinned

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was among those criticised but looks likely to stay in office, after the report concluded that he did act 'reasonably'. The Winograd committee investigating the Israeli government’s handling of the war stopped short of l

“We found serious deficiencies and mistakes in the decision making process and in the workings of the political echelon, the military echelon and in the interface between them,” said Eliyahu Winograd, the head of the panel investigating Israel’s 2006 Lebanon War.

But families who lost sons want action, and not just flowery words.

“This is a country that is a country that’s still in survival and if people do not know how to take responsibility for their own deeds then I do not know what is going to happen to with this country,” stated Batsheva Tzemach, mother of a dead soldier, Jerusalem.

“My friend Igor was killed because of our government’s mishandling of the war. The high command and the command on the ground had no idea that the enemy acted in a different way and behaved as they had in previous wars,” said Roman Ratner, commander of special sniper unit and a former officer in one of the special units of the Soviet army that fought in Afghanistan. He does not call himself a soldier anymore after Lebanon and will not fight for a leadership he does not trust.