If you scrape off the political "conclusions" from the Winograd, you do get a strong condemnation of Olmert and the way his government ran the war. This editorial from Ha'aretz, hat tip IMRA, says it well.
The people didn't want a poltical report, but Olmert appointed the committee.
This reminds me of the Sin of the Spies, in the Bible. The twelve tribal leaders were only asked to report the situation, not to draw conclusions. The Land was rich. The fruit brought back proved it, but instead of using that to encourage the People, they frightened the People by ignoring G-d's power and all that had happened up to then.
Ten of the spies spoke logically, as if the Hebrews were ordinary people, not G-d's chosen. As reasonable pragmatists, they insisted that there was no way we could defeat the powerful locals.
Winograd describes a totaly faulty government with "disabled" thinking processes which turned what should have been a victory into defeat. But then it follows the "party line" and explains that compromises must be made for "peace," and that it's good that the war brought international forces to "protect" us.
Davka, that's the biggest tragedy of the Second Lebanese War. The State of Israel gave up on sovereignty. Just like the punishment in Biblical times, when our entrance to the Holy Land was delayed for decades, Peace will now be delayed as punishment for the sins of Winograd and Olmert.
2 comments:
txstglThey did it. The evil ones did it again. They managed to successfully sweep Winograd under the carpet. I don't even think they thought it would be such a sweet success.
A) The first report is totally forgotten. The second report was only about the end of the 'war'.
B) Winograd was supposed to be published on Sunday with the whole week ahead to be discussed in the knesset and in the media. Apparently, the PM's office asked that the report be tabled on Wednesday due to some 'scheduling problems' - no immediate discussion in the knesset (Dalia Itzik refused to allow a special session on the next day) and Shabbat always cuts any story off. So there were only two days of public discussion, and no one had really managed to read the whole report by Thursday night deadline anyways.
C) The immediate reaction of media to follow the Kadima line - report was downplayed, the wording was softened, and the mass market was told that it was not 'so bad after all' (and no one had even read the report yet!!!)
D) Even right-wingers and orange people (A7 included) were sucked into the 'mass-market' analysis of the report (cuz we're so frigging lazy to read it ourselves!) and we also downplayed the actual claims in the report.
E) Since the commission decided that it would not hand out personal recommendations, it chose to use supposedly neutral wording to represent stronger language. Instead, this softened attitude was interpreted literally.
F) We were already hearing the next morning about how they were all relieved, and that it was over, and 'we' can go on running the country.
G) Big losers: the general public that simply had the wool pulled over their eyes, the families of the fallen, and the people of the north who suffered the most furing the actual war and even afterwards.
H) The biggest losers, and I mean THE BIGGEST LOSERS OF ALL - Dan Halutz and Amir Peretz. They actually had an ounce of integrity to resign 'early' and were merely then used as scapegoats by their comrades and the media while Olmert left them behind. If they would have stayed on, they would also be enjoying the glory of post-Winograd.
True
The media and the politicians work hand in hand.
The real problem is the Israeli poltical system.
Bli neder, I'll blog more about it.
Post a Comment