Quds, January 30, SPA -- An Israeli commission of inquiry into Israel's 2006 war with Lebanon's Hezbollah said Wednesday it found "great and grave faults" in the decision-making of both the government and military, according to the Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa. Presenting its long-awaited final conclusions 18 months after the summer war, the commission nevertheless did not draw "personal conclusions," nor recommend the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert or other political and military leaders. Despite its harsh criticism, it exonerated Olmert on several key claims made against him, including his decision to launch a large- scale, last-minute ground offensive in the final three days of the war. Olmert, who earlier received the 617-page report at his Jerusalem office, said in initial reaction he would "thoroughly study" it over the coming days. His aides were quick to say they were "relieved" by the commission's findings and said his critics "owe him an apology" for the "character assassination" they carried out against him. But the hardline Likud party of Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the opposition called on Olmert to resign. Relatives of soldiers who died in the war also set up a protest tent opposite the Tel Aviv home of Defence Minister Ehud Barak, demanding he pull his dovish Labour Party out Olmert's Kadima-led coalition. "In the overall evaluation of the war we can see that there was a great and grave miss(ed opportunity)," Winograd told a news conference in occupied Al-Quds Wednesday evening, summing up his commission's almost 17-month-long investigation. "Israel set out on a lengthy war, which it itself initiated, which ended without Israel winning a clear military victory. "A paramilitary organization of thousands of fighters, stood during several weeks opposite the strongest army in the Middle East, which enjoyed absolute air superiority and advantages in size and technology," said the retired judge. Olmert's decision to launch the large-scale military offensive came late and after a "long period of trudging." It therefore could not materialize its potential and failed to achieve any military goals.
