Olmert Should Have Seen This Coming

After the way Israeli Prime Minister governed and led his country in the August 2006 war against Hizbullah, he should have expected the report on the government's response to the Hizbullah war to slam the way he led the war.

According to the report, Olmert bears the responsibility for the decision to go to war without sufficient preparation, a decision the committee called "serious flaws in judgement, responsibility, and caution."

In addition, in the final chapter of the report, Olmert is described as a passive leader who was led by the nose by the army and who did not take charge of the war he was supposed to be commanding.

The committee found that Peretz was unfamiliar with the state of the IDF, although his job demanded that he be. The report went on to state that the defense minister should not have accepted the Defense portfolio in the first place, and did not do what he should have to make up for his lack of knowledge of security matters after he accepted the post.

I'm being charitable when I say led, because he made Whiplash Ray Nagin of New Orleans seem downright decisive by comparison. Olmert kept changing his mind on whether to take out Hizbullah with the full might of the Israeli military, and even when he sent troops north into Lebanon, he did so half-heartedly and didn't go after the Lebanon Syria border to shut down the resupply lines between Hizbullah and its patrons. Not only did more weapons and personnel come through into Lebanon, but Hizbullah leadership were able to survive the war and claim victory even as much of South Lebanon lay in ruin because Hizbullah used the six years following the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon to turn the entire region into a tunnel and bunker complex - often mixed in with residential areas so as to maximize civilian casualties.

The report goes further and notes that the Israeli political leadership was underwhelming in their ability to get up to speed, and the IDF Chief of Staff Halutz didn't take the Hizbullah rocket attacks seriously enough.

What's interesting is that the Israelis are making the same exact mistake they did in not taking rocket attacks seriously enough. Hamas and the other terrorist groups are regularly firing rockets into Israel from Gaza and Olmert is showing far too much restraint in going after the terrorists firing those rockets and the terrorist infrastructure that believes that Israel simply doesn't have the willpower to fight.

Israel is losing its capability to defend itself because of self-imposed restraint on the use of force against terrorists. The terrorists see this and know that they can continue their violence against Israel, and the media picks up any Israeli defensive actions as being disproportionate. The terrorists need to be disabused of the notion that Israel will not defend itself using all the means at its disposal - up to and including eliminating the terrorist threat and destroying the PA once and for all. The PA has repeatedly shown itself unwilling to stop the terrorist attacks, and instead is used to shift foreign aid to the terror campaign and provide political cover even as the terrorist attacks continue.

The media regularly ignores the fact that Israel has nearly completely stopped the suicide bombers from entering Israel with the security fence, and that ongoing operations have thwarted dozens of other plots. The rocket attacks continue on a near daily basis and it is a matter of time before more Israelis are killed. Hamas also has declared that they want to capture still more Israelis to be used as bargaining chips to secure the release of Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails.

Where is the pressure to be brought to bear on a terrorist regime whose first inclination is to engage in terrorism, kidnapping, and extortion to get its way? No - the pressure is on Israel to make ever more concessions even as the Palestinians avoid any obligations of their own.

UPDATE:
Meryl Yourish has a good piece up about how Hamas is preparing for another round with Israel, and is preparing to fight on the Hizbullah model. She also notes that Israel's enemies keep saying give us peace or we'll kill you. I'd modify that slightly - Israel's enemies want Israel in pieces or they'll kill you. In the end, it's the same thing. Israel is facing enemies who seek nothing less than Israel's very annihilation. Whether you speak of Hizbullah, Hamas, Fatah or Islamic Jihad, or Iran or Syria, the rhetoric is invariably the same, and the intent is there.

Carl in Jerusalem has links to the actual report and analysis. Among the conclusions - Peretz should never have been Defense Minister. Heh. It would seem that the report is setting Peretz up as the fall guy and might help Foreign Minister Lipni, even though she's not entirely competent either.

UPDATE:
The calls for Olmert to resign are increasing, though I doubt he's got enough sense to resign out of his ongoing failures as Prime Minister.

UPDATE:
Others blogging the Winograd Commission report include: Power Line, Efraim Inbar, and Yid with a Lid.

UPDATE:
Hizbullah is taking the Winograd Report as an admission that Hizbullah won the war last year. It is rather difficult to find otherwise - Hizbullah is still in existence and it still holds Goldwasser and Regev, while Israel has little to show for the effort. South Lebanon ended up on the receiving end of most of the damage though, not that Hizbullah matters.