Kim Bullimore
An investigative committee established by Israeli "defence" minister Amir Peretz to examine the military conduct of the war against Lebanon was suspended on August 22 after only a single day's work. It was suspended amid growing calls for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to set up a national "state commission of inquiry".
The committee, set up by Peretz in response to criticisms of the conduct of Israel's Lebanon invasion, was limited solely to investigating the function of Israel's military establishment and not the role of the government in the war.
On August 21, Israeli reservists who fought in Lebanon issued a petition to Peretz and chief of defence Dan Halutz to protest the handling of the war by both the government and senior military officials. The petition, which was published in the Israeli daily Haaretz, cites the "cancelling" of missions during fighting, leading to "prolonged stays in hostile, without an operational purpose and out of unprofessional considerations, without seeking to engage in combat with the enemy".
The petition claims the war was bungled through "under-preparation", "lack of foresight" and an "inability to make rational decisions".
Reservists and other Israeli citizens have also begun to organise and attend protests by the families of soldiers who died during the war. On August 22, protesters demonstrated outside Olmert's parliamentary office in Jerusalem, calling on the PM, Peretz and Halutz to resign. The protesters said that soldiers sent to Lebanon lacked adequate training, food and ammunition during battle.
Haaretz reported on August 21 that the majority of members of the foreign affairs and defence committee of the Knesset (Israel's parliament) supported the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the war. The paper reported that only committee members from Olmert's party, Kadima, opposed the move. Committee chairperson (and Kadima party member) Tzachi Hanegbi blocked the committee from issuing a statement calling for the establishment of an inquiry.
Olmert is trying to avoid a state commission of inquiry, because under Israeli law, it would be headed by a justice of the Supreme Court who would determine the parameters of the commission, as opposed to Olmert's government determining an inquiry's parameters (as was the case with Peretz's inquiry).