Last update - 00:00 23/04/2007
PM seeks MK media blitz to counter war probe
By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's associates have asked Kadima MKs to prepare a media blitz to counter the onslaught expected upon publication of the Winograd Committee's interim report next week.
Olmert's aides want to turn public opinion in his favor in the event of an expected chorus of calls from politicians, non-government organizations and bereaved parents for his resignation.
The prime minister's bureau chief of staff, Oved Yehezkel, is coordinating political preparations for the day of the report's release, senior Kadima sources said.
Yehezkel has enlisted political figures and Kadima MKs to come to Olmert's defense in the media as soon as the Winograd report is released on Sunday.
The campaign team will emphasize the "collective responsibility" of the cabinet and Knesset, as well as public support for the decision to launch the second Lebanon War. Olmert said Sunday in radio interviews marking Monday's Independence Day that on July 12, 24 ministers voted in favor of the action, while the Knesset supported it unanimously, followed by the public.
Depsite their fears, the prime minister's associates assume that while the interim report is expected to criticize Olmert and his ministers, it will not be "fatal," and will leave him with political and public maneuvering room.
Olmert knows he cannot rely on the support of Kadima ministers, particularly Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former cronies MK Haim Ramon, who is serving a public service sentence, and Avraham Hirchson, who suspended himself Sunday from the finance ministerial post.
The prime minister can also not rely on Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who is also bracing for the report, since he headed the defense establishment during the six years following the pullout from Lebanon.
Interior Minister Roni Bar-On, Olmert's close associate, is expected to lead the public opinion campaign on behalf of the prime minister, as he has done in the past.
In addition to efforts to muster support within Kadima, Olmert has spoken to senior left-wing figures. Last week, Haaretz reported that Olmert had met author Amos Oz, conveying to him that there is a political horizon and he intends to take courageous, far reaching measures.
Haaretz also reported that Olmert's aides are trying to persuade United Torah Judaism MKs Moshe Gafni and Avraham Ravitz to support the premier in the Knesset if Labor quits the government.
Olmert's preparations indicate that he is bracing for a war of survival, and intends to rehabilitate his political and public image. If he survives the days immediately after publication of the interim report, he believes he will be strengthened by the time the Labor Party holds its primaries. As a result, Labor would remain in the coalition with either Ehud Barak or Ami Ayalon at its helm.
At that stage, he would also be able to carry out a cabinet reshuffle and remove Defense Minister Amir Peretz.
A prelude to the political storm expected after the release of the interim Winograd report was given over the weekend following a statement made by Education Minister Yuli Tamir on Channel Two. Tamir accused the military leadership of providing the cabinet with erroneous information that led to the decision to go to war.
Tamir's statement triggered harsh criticism by other ministers. One of them said it was an attempt "to write the story backward from the end to the beginning. She could have asked questions but didn't."
The education minister was also blasted for trying to help Peretz in anticipation of the interim report's release and the party's approaching primaries.
"Tamir is trying to lay responsibility on the army a week before the report [comes out]," another minister said. "This is undeserving and cynical, and looks like a primaries trick."
Tamir said the accusations are groundless, and that she had accurately described the events.