Losers go home!

There are two main reasons why the Israeli population supports the conclusions of the Winograd Committee interim Report, that covers only the start (first 5 days) of the war in Lebanon. One is because PM Olmert rushed into the war without taking adequate care to consider alternatives. For this reason the left wing oppose Olmert, and think that his decision to go to war was ill-advised and precipitous.
The other reason is from the right, people who think he made the right decision to go to war with Hizbollah, but made the wrong strategic decisions on how to wage the war. In this respect, the final Committee Report due in two months should provide more details and answers. But, everyone knows already that it was partly because he had a dummy for a Defense Minister, who apparently had no idea what to do, and a biased Chief of Staff who pushed only an aerial campaign. Most experts (and I) agree that what was needed was a massive ground invasion through the center of southern Lebanon that would have carved up the Hizbollah forces and overwhelmed them. Instead the IDF sat around the edges and were picked off. Also, unrealistic war aims were presented publicly and nothing serious was done to stop the barrage of rockets into northern Israel.
So let's be clear, most people thought a war with Hizbollah was necessary, but failed Olmert and his crew for their incompetent conduct of the war. In fact, the Winograd Committee criticized the three previous Israeli Administrations, back to PM Barak who had been a Chief of Staff himself, for having allowed Hizbollah to grow so large and become so well-armed (with rockets) without having taken any action against them, while at the same time neglecting the IDF's readiness for war. In other words, they all left the situation to worsen until it fell into Olmert's lap, and he had no idea what to do about it.
Now Olmert's excuse for clinging to power is that since he made the mistakes, he should be the one to implement the proposals of the Committee and rectify the errors. But, that is faulty logic, if he was at fault, and he acknowledges that he was, then he should resign and leave it to someone more qualified to rectify his mistakes and improve the level of readiness and capability of the IDF. It is not only a question of the need to make sure these errors aren't repeated, but to let the Arabs know that the IDF still has the necessary deterrent capability. Otherwise they may feel that Israel is weakened and they may be empowered to attack. It may be in this light that there are reports that Syria is massing arms (supplied by Iran) and men on the Israeli border in readiness for another war this summer. I tremble to think that Olmert and Peretz could still be in power and in charge of running another war, this time one for Israeli survival.
Note that Olmert prevented the setting up of an official Government Commission that would have had the authority to fire him. What he set up was a Committee of enquiry that does not have that degree of authority, whose conclusions are not binding but are only advisory. So that's why Olmert and Peretz remain glued to their chairs. We need to get the rascals out, and a huge rally of ca. 200,000 people took place last night (Thurs) at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv in order to do just that, with the slogan "Losers go home!" Let's hope this process will succeed.