An Israeli inquiry report on the handling of the Lebanon war last summer has described Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's efforts as a "severe failure."
A copy of the report obtained by The Associated Press cited a "severe failure in the lack of judgment, responsibility and caution."
After receiving a copy of the report, Olmert responded by saying "failures will be remedied."
The report will be officially released later today.
"The report faults Olmert and Peretz for just not having the experience in defence issues," CTV's Middle East bureau chief Janis Mackey Frayer told Canada AM from Jerusalem on Monday.
Olmert's defense minister, Labor Party Leader Amir Peretz, took over the cabinet position less than two months before the war, with little experience in security matters.
"Over the past couple of days, there have been growing calls for Ehud Olmert's resignation and I understand that he is perhaps the most unpopular prime minister in Israel's history," Mackey Frayer said.
"According to most polls, his support stands at two or three per cent right now."
However, Olmert's aides said the prime minister had no intention of stepping down. According to Israeli media, leaked details of the interim report's conclusion say the five-member commission will not call for his resignation.
The report is also believed to say that the military chief, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, failed to give the government a sufficient range of military options, that he played down the threat of Hezbollah rockets, and silenced dissenting voices with the army command.
The report will find the following:
- The leaders were rash in their decision to go to war;
- Olmert overstated the war's aims;
- They lacked a clear exit strategy; and
- Olmert and Peretz were unfamiliar with defence issues.
- Israel army troops complained of confused orders and shortages of ammunition and food.
Olmert is expected to call an emergency cabinet meeting with his Kadima party after the report is released in order to draft a unified response.
The report will analyze the first six days of the fighting, when the war's objectives were formulated, as well as the six years between Israel's May 2000 pullout from southern Lebanon and the outbreak of the conflict. The full report on the entire war will be released in the summer.
It is expected that the commission will make personal recommendations in their final report.
"It will be those personal recommendations that may have a greater effect on the prime minister's political fate," Mackey Frayer told Â鶹´«Ã½net on Monday.
While Olmert claimed that Israel made strategic gains during the 34-day war, it failed to achieve two of his goals: To crush Hezbollah and return the two captured soldiers.
The Israeli military also has been criticized for failing to stop Hezbollah from bombarding northern Israel with almost 4,000 rockets. About one million Israelis were forced into bunkers as a result.
The war began when Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three others in a July 12, 2006 cross-border raid.
Israel responded to the attack by bombing bridges and other infrastructure in southern Lebanon and attacking the Beirut international airport.
Between 1,035 and 1,191 Lebanese civilians and combatants were killed in the war, as were 119 Israeli soldiers and 39 civilians.
The fighting continued for a month before a UN brokered ceasefire took effect on August 14, 2006.
The commission headed by retired judge Eliyahu Winograd is not binding in the sense that it can demand the resignation of some officials.
If parliament was dissolved and an early election called, polls show that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline Likud party would sweep to victory.
With a report from CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer and files from The Associated Press
