Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stays on his job after the release of the Winograd Committee's final report on the Second Lebanon war on Wednesday, though amid heightened call for his resignation.

 

In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, the Prime Minister's Office said that Olmert takes the Winograd Committee's final report with "complete seriousness," adding that the government would in the coming days begin the "process of implementing the recommendations" contained in the final report.

 

Eliyahu Winograd, chairman of Israel's Winograd Committee probing into the performance of the government and the army during 2006's Second Lebanon War, said earlier on Wednesday that "major faults were found on all levels during the war."

 

The committee said in the final report that it found "severe failures and faults in the decision making process, both in the political and military echelon."

 

Terming the war a "great and serious missed opportunity," Winograd told a press conference in Jerusalem that "Israel embarked on a prolonged war that it initiated, which ended without a clear Israeli victory from a military standpoint."

 

However, the report stopped short of blaming Olmert personally for what many Israelis saw as a stunning fiasco in the month-long war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. Winograd also said that Olmert had acted in what he thought was "Israel's best interest."

 

Olmert has repeatedly said he would not step down after the findings are released.

 

"I have been asked many times what would happen this week," Olmert told his faction members during a Kadima meeting on Monday," You can be calm, we have many more years to govern."

 

Meanwhile, the opposition party Likud issued a statement calling the report severe and demanding that Olmert resign.

 

According to the Likud, the report placed responsibility for the war's failures squarely on the shoulders of the political echelon headed by the prime minister, who therefore must take personal responsibility and step down.

 

The Likud statement also called on Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who had vowed to pull his Labor Party out of the government by the release of the final report, to fulfill his promise.

 

"If Barak was looking for an excuse in the report to avoid resigning, he didn't find it," the statement said.

 

Barak's aid said that the defense minister does not intend to respond to the report at this time. Barak had also in the past promised to demand that Olmert be replaced following the report's publication.

 

On Monday, Barak said "I can promise you one thing, and that is that I will make a decision according to what is best for the State of Israel."

 

Israeli army reservist soldiers that served in the war and bereaved families who lost their close ones in combat on Wednesday protested outside Barak's house in Tel Aviv, reiterating their demand for him to fulfill his promise to resign from the government.

 

Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz also called the report "very severe," adding that the war was a "colossal failure." The Labor MK, who has repeatedly called on Olmert to resign, is an advocate for Labor to quit the coalition.

 

Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin said his party would "continue to demand that Olmert end his term, all the more so in the wake of the report."

 

"The final Winograd report strengthens the impression that critical decisions on Israel's future were made without proper judgment," Beilin said.

 

A 34-day-long fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerillas erupted on July 12, 2006, following the abduction of two Israeli soldiers by the Shiite group.

 

It ended on August 14, 2006 under a UN-brokered resolution. More than 110 Israeli soldiers and over 1,200 Lebanese were killed in the conflict.

 

The Winograd final report came nine months after an interim inquiry found Olmert and other political and military leaders responsible for "severe failures" in the war.

 

Of the three senior leaders harshly criticized in the preliminary report – Olmert, former Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, Olmert is the only one who still hangs on to his job and refuses to resign. 

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2008)