The war between the state comptroller and the prime minister will go down in the history of the country as a particularly ugly affair. Most of what the two leveled at each other this week is true.
The comptroller will be right when he argues that the government's handling of the Home Front during the second Lebanon war was outrageous. The prime minister will be right when he argues that the comptroller's passion for publicity has gone to his head.
However, Israelis will be more correct than anyone in saying we have had enough. Let Lindenstrauss and Olmert squabble as much as they like but not on the ruins of my home.
The facts pertaining to the handling of the Home Front are clear and have been discussed at length in investigative reports and in Knesset committees. When the cabinet decided to embark on a campaign that turned into a war, it knew that the north would be exposed to ongoing rocket fire, but refused to internalize this information.
Contingency plans remained contingency plans. The Home Front Command lowered its profile. Municipalities collapsed. The cabinet discovered that years of budget cutbacks left it without elementary working tools. A vacuum was created and filled by non-governmental organizations. This was the only positive development throughout the five weeks of unjustified suffering by close to a million Israeli citizens.
Prime Minister’s Office Director General Raanan Dinur took the handling of the Home Front portfolio upon himself. He did so voluntarily, beyond what was required of him by law. Dinur worked day and night and called more and more sessions and meetings. The protocols are generally in his favor, but the facts on the ground are against him. Because he took responsibility, he has to pay. That's how it works in a law abiding country.
But Israel has ceased to function as a law abiding country. We have a state comptroller who has sworn to tie a prime minister's skull to his belt. There is nothing personal in his conduct: Just shameless addiction to headlines. It was reasonable to expect that the Winograd and Lindenstrauss reports would be publicized together.
That's how a real discussion on the Lebanon war and all its aspects could have been held – a discussion that would have led, perhaps, to the cabinet's resignation and the end of Olmert's career. But Lindenstrauss was in a hurry: He won't let the Winograd Commission steal the headlines. He and only he will be credited with the government's downfall.
The letter Olmert sent Sunday to the Knesset chairman is unprecedented in its harshness. Olmert is accusing the comptroller of false and baseless reports, cynicism, violation of procedures, and stirring up fears of war among the public. The comptroller's response will be forthcoming. In his appearance at the Knesset Tuesday, he plans to place six pages on the table that put the blame squarely on Olmert and his ministers.
The State Comptroller's Office says there is no connection between the timing of the report and the competing report. Lindenstrauss waited for Olmert's answers to a list of questions sent to him. When the answers failed to arrive, Lindenstrauss decided to appear this Tuesday at the State Control Committee and to present the highlights of his findings.
This is a commendable but weak effort in public relations. Until now, the comptroller would usually transfer the draft of the report to those being investigated. Their answers would be published along with the report. This time he reversed the order: He decided to publish the report first, and only later give those being investigated a chance to respond.
If we are to believe the reporters who quoted sections of the report in recent days, Lindenstrauss went too far and preferred to leak the findings to the media before presenting them to the Knesset. There is an alleged criminal offense here.
The state comptroller has another argument: We have to prepare for the next war immediately. Therefore we cannot wait an extra two weeks. This is not a valid argument in the best of cases.
Olmert's motive for writing his letter is transparent: He wants to divert the attention away from the war's failures and his conduct and to direct it towards Lindenstrauss.
The truth of the matter is that both these questions warrant discussion in parallel. Yet beyond these questions there is a third, much more urgent one: How can a prime minister function under such a daily barrage? One day it's his apartments, the next the Small and Medium Enterprise Authority, followed by charges of favoritism in the Likud Central Committee, and then the home front's shortcomings.
A prime minister's position does not resemble that of a tourism minister, whereby the person designated to man the position can be toyed with. Let them oust him. But as long as he is there, let him work.
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