Parents' report: We won't forgive Olmert unless he resigns
Bereaved parents compile alternate report on Second Lebanon War week before release of Winograd findings. In document, they try to understand why, and for what cause, their loved ones had died
It is a report filled with heartache and grief. Families bereaved by the Second Lebanon War released on Wednesday an alternate report on the military and political failings of the Lebanon operation, just one week prior to the publication of the findings of the Winograd Commission appointed by the government to probe the State's handling of the war.
“We are parents to children who died in defense of our country during the Second Lebanon War, and who love this country in deed and word with every fiber of our being,” open this heartfelt report, which the parents dedicate to “their fallen children with love, immense gratitude and heartfelt longing.”
The Bereaved Parents’ report is based upon a series of inquiries which the parents have launched themselves in order to discover precisely why their loved ones had perished during the failed Lebanon campaign.
“Bereaved families in this country have remained silent for far too long,” states the report, “silent about negligence and silent about governmental shortcomings…but now the wall of silence will comes tumbling down.”
For over a year and a half now, these grieving families have met at one of their homes each week, meticulously compiling this report on the war, which they deem “the central event in their lives,” in an effort to remind readers what war—and its ultimate cost—are truly about.
Olmert rejects report
But the group was barred from presenting Olmert with the report and its representatives were not allowed into the prime minister's office.
MK Arieh Eldad (National Union – NRP) heard what had transpired at the prime minister's office and took a copy of the report to personally deliver to Olmert.
Olmert turning away a copy of the alternative report
"I took a copy and approached him at the Knesset plenum. I told him that this was the report that he had not been presented with because the bereaved families were unable to enter his office and that I am positive he is interested in reading it," said MK Eldad.
"The prime minister made a face, rejected the report with his hand and said he was busy. Minister Ze'ev Boim told me: 'You can see that we're talking here.' I said: 'I understand and am still leaving you the report.' Olmert glanced at it and immediately turned it over so that no one would see it next to him.'
What Miracle are they talking about?
From the very outset of the report, bereaved families point an accusatory finger at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for the Lebanon War’s failure.
”The prime minister wants to ensure that Israel’s citizens quickly forget the war, and will employ all and any means to do it. He himself noted that the war is but a distant memory to him,” states the report.
Israeli soldiers in battle (Photo: AP)
“We all heard the prime minister say that a miracle had transpired, and that God had sent us to war so that we can detect and fix all of our military failings,” state the parents. “Do our leaders even hear the words leaving their mouth? How can the prime minister possibly speak of a miracle when a mother, weeping on her son’s grave a year after his death, stated that it was all for naught?”
The war was clearly mismanaged, state the bereaved parents “there were no clear goals or missions. Even when a mission was instated, it was immediately canceled and another one set in its place.”
Parent to gov’t: Take responsibility for your actions
The bereaved parents state that they in no way “want to weaken the will and resolve of our leaders, or make them hesitant to wage another war should one prove necessary,” but with that they want cabinet ministers to "take responsibility for their reckless decision to go to war and their careless management thereof…so that further unnecessary deaths and sacrifices will not transpire.”
In preparing this comprehensive report, parent met with their sons’ brother in arms, who gave heart wrenching accounts of the battles they had seen, as well as with senior army staff—including commanders and the chief of staff—who they asked biting, pointed and scathing questions.
The report concludes with an entire chapter of parents’ recommendations, chief amongst which is a call for the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Calling the prime minister’s testimony to the Winograd Commission “elusive”, bereaved parents called on Olmert to resign as prime minister.
“Olmert’s elusiveness and subterfuge only compounds his failure a managing the war, and shows a great lack of integrity and shame.
"The fact that the prime minister chooses to overlook the shortcomings and failures ascribed to him by the Winograd Commission is intolerable and inexcusable,” states the report.
'How can you call us cowards?'
The bereaved parents’ representatives presented the report to the Knesset on Wednesday. The meeting was also attended by army reservists and five Knesset members from the prime minister's Kadima faction.
MK Zevulun Orlev (National Union-National Religious Party), chairman of the “lobby for the implementation of the Winograd report”, stated that “only in dictatorial, authoritarian regimes are leaders free to do what they wish and are unaccountable for their actions.”
One of the compilers of the report, Moshe Muskal, reported that the bereaved parents were not allowed to hand their report directly to Prime Minister Olmert.
“We stood like beggars outside the prime ministers’ office in order to ceremoniously hand him the very first copy of our report,” stated Muskal, “We want answers…We want to know why, who is responsible and how we can keep this from ever happening again.”
Muskal also leveled scathing criticism at the government, and especially at the prime minister. “The government in effect castrated the Winograd Commission and did not allow it to issue recommendation, and so we decided to issue so of our own,” he said.
Tomer Buhadana, who was injured during the Second Lebanon War, broke down crying during the meeting as he told those present, “I am fuming with anger, my heart is thumping in my chest. I can accept us (soldiers) being called provocateurs, but not cowards.
"How can you call us cowards when our blood still lines the streets of Lebanese villages? Is being maimed and wounded alright, but pointing out the shortcomings of our leaders no so?”
Uzi Dayan, chairman of the Tafnit movement, stated during the meeting that “Olmert failed at running the Lebanon War, and now he is further courting himself by attacking the very group that bore the burden of this war.”
MK Danny Yatom (Labor) further noted that “there is only one person here who does not understand the meaning of personal accountability and that is Prime Minister Olmert.”
Aviram Zino contributed to this report
