Last update - 00:00 18/02/2008
PM gave Winograd panel details of post-war decision-making
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert provided the Winograd Committee with details about the decision-making process during the months of tension with Syria in the spring and summer of last year, partly to demonstrate an improvement since the Second Lebanon War, according to a document that has reached Haaretz.
The document was sent to the members of the Winograd Committee, which investigated the 2006 war against Hezbollah. In its final report, which was issued last month, the committee assailed the large-scale ground operation launched in the final 60 hours of the war, but found that the decisions that motivated the government to approve the offensive were acceptable.
Called "Report on the implementation of the recommendations of the partial report of the committee investigating the events of the war in Lebanon 2006," the document was the third the government submitted to the committee. One of the other documents was submitted in July.
Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel wrote in the document, "Important changes have taken place in the work patterns."
He said the changes helped provide politicians with information and could improve the decision-making process.
The document includes a detailed list of activities meant to improve that process. Some involved the political-security cabinet.
"Since the partial [Winograd] report, the ministerial committee on national security affairs has increased the frequency of its meetings to nearly once every two weeks," wrote Yehezkel, who is a signatory to the document. He said he was sending the committee details of the timetable for the political-security cabinet and the cabinet subcommittee on the northern front. Those details do not appear in the document, however, and were apparently sent separately.
The northern front subcommittee was established on June 6, following a discussion about the increasing tension with Syria. The 11 ministers in the subcommittee met nearly 10 times between June and September to discuss various aspects of Israeli-Syrian relations. During that time, Olmert said the situation could lead Damascus to a miscalculation, and a confrontation in Israel's north. The ministerial committee met for in-depth discussion about Syria, emphasizing the home front's readiness for a Syrian rocket barrage.
It is not clear how much information the Prime Minister's Office provided the Winograd Committee on the activities of the northern front panel, and it is hard to say to what extent that information influenced the Winograd Committee or its final report.
The PMO refused to comment, and the Winograd Committee would not provide additional details.
"We do not intend to provide details on the material submitted to the committee, and everything that was submitted was taken into account in writing the report," a Winograd Committee spokesman said.
The report did note that there was some improvement in the decision-making process since the war, but said the problems had not been completely fixed.
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