Eliyahu Winograd

The Final Winograd Report on the Second Lebanon War is "a penetrating and extensive report that poses many difficult questions," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday during a meeting of Kadima ministers following the release of the report to the public a day earlier. "The government is in the midst of important work," he said, adding that the government was working to amend the shortcomings revealed by the report. "The changes are not mere formalities but rather profound alterations." Retired Justice Eliyahu Winograd said the committee found "failures and shortcomings" in the country's political and military leadership, stating that the "last-minute ground offensive in Lebanon did not improve Israel's position". "A great and grave missed opportunity," Winograd called the war, saying that the fault "lies mostly with the military – but partially responsible for this is the weakness projected by the political echelon."Israel, the committee determined, could not attribute any political achievements to military success, "but rather depended on a political settlement, which did indeed have some positive aspects for Israel – it was a settlement that allowed the fighting to stop despite not having been settled in the battlefield."The prime minister Ehoud Olmert praised the IDF soldiers who participated in the fighting and also turned to the bereaved families. "I feel the pain of the bereaved families; they sacrificed that which was most important to them; a sacrifice that was not for naught, but for Israel's security." (19,01)