Last update - 00:00 14/01/2008
Barak meets with bereaved families, makes no promises on Winograd
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent
Defense Minister Ehud Barak met on Monday with representatives of the bereaved families of soldiers killed during the Second Lebanon War, some of whom asked Barak to sign a document promising to resign his post following the release of the final Winograd Committee report on the war, expected on January 30.
Sources in Barak's office said that the meeting lasted about an hour and was conducted in a "good atmosphere."
"There was nothing new at the meeting," said Moshe Muskal, whose son Rafanel was killed during the war. "He [Barak] listened, heard and spoke. Nothing thunderous followed the lightning [Barak] and the meeting was like the weather - cold."
Muskal said that he and a number of other bereaved parents in the meeting - held at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv - expressed their strong criticism against Barak for staying in the government.
"He told us that we should be patient. I suppose that he enjoys the fact that he is being courted so intensely these days, on the eve of the release of the report, but he does not have much time to enjoy himself."
The bereaved father said that next Wednesday, he and other parents will present to the Knesset the report they have been preparing in recent months, which contrary to the Winograd Committee's document, will include personal recommendations on those involved.
"Our report will be titled 'How Heroes Fell,' and we will release it a week before the Winograd report," Muskal said.
"After our report and the publication of the Winograd report, we expect that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will no longer be in that role, otherwise we will not go home, and will embark on protest actions. In the terminology of Beitar [Jerusalem] fans we will burn down the clubhouse," he warned.
During a meeting of the Labor faction in the Knesset on Monday, Barak discussed the meeting with the bereaved families.
"I respect them very much, as I do their opinion and their thoughts, and I listened to them closely," Barak said. "At the end of the meeting I told them that I will read the Winograd report after it is released, and I shall weigh the situation and I will decide what is right and best for Israel, according to the best of my understanding and my conscience."
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