Olmert refuses a call to quit over 2006 war on Lebanon

Source: AFP, 26-12-2007
AL-QUDS - "Israeli" Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not intend to step down after the full report by a commission of inquiry into the 2006 Lebanon war is published, an MP said on Wednesday the premier told her.
Olmert said he had "absolutely no intention of resigning following publication of the Winograd report," leftwing Meretz deputy Zehava Gal-On told army radio after a meeting with the prime minister.
Judge Eliahu Winograd is presiding over the government commission of inquiry into failures of the 34-day July-August conflict with the successful Lebanese occupation-resistance movement Hizbullah last year, and is due to publish his full report in the coming months.
In April the commission published an interim report blasting former army chief of staff Dan Halutz, who quit in January, along with ex-defence (war) minister Amir Peretz who resigned in the following weeks, for having failed in their duties.
Olmert was also responsible for "serious failure," the interim report said.
Gal-On had called on Olmert to resign when the interim report was published.
Halutz was decorated on Monday for his role in the conflict, receiving a medal along with all other military leaders in office during the war.
A wave of public criticism erupted in "Israel" following the war, which is widely perceived as a failure for having failed to stop Hizbullah from firing rockets into "Israel" and for having failed to retrieve two "Israeli" servicemen whose capture by the occupation-resistance group was used as a pretext by "Israel" to launch its war.