Protests Force Olmert To Upgrade Inquiry Into Lebanon Offensive
Julie Farby - All Headline News Staff Writer Tel Aviv, Israel (AHN) - On Monday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert named retired judge Eliyahu Vinograd to head an inquiry into his government's handling of its incursion into Lebanon after public pressure forced him to upgrade the scope of the investigation. Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand Olmert order a full-scale state inquiry into the conflict which was aimed at recovering two soldiers seized by Hezbollah fighters in a cross-border raid on July 12. Under the investigation to be led by Vinograd, the cabinet would decide who sits on the panel, a step that critics say is equal to the government "stacking the deck" in a probe of its own actions. But under Israeli law, Vinograd, as a former judge, could ask the justice minister to grant the government-appointed panel the same powers of subpoena and witness immunity that an independent state inquiry would have received automatically. Critics of the 34-day campaign complained the government jumped the gun in ordering an ill-prepared army to battle a guerrilla group that ultimately embarrassed the Middle East's strongest army by firing nearly 4,000 rockets into Israel. Prime Minister Olmert, while acknowledging "shortcomings and failures" in the conduct of the war by the government and the military, has said a full-scale state inquiry would be too time consuming. Olmert's offi |
