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War Inquiry Demanded in Israel

As many as 30,000 Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv`s Rabin Square this past Saturday evening to demand a full government inquiry into Jerusalem`s handling of the recent war with Hizballah, and treatment of the rocket-battered home front in the north of the country. The event was organized by the Movement for Quality Government, and several groupings of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservists who took part in the fighting against Hizballah.

Demonstrating under the banner "State Inquiry Commission Now!", the participants accused the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of mismanaging the war effort and failing to adequately care for the country`s northern regions, which absorbed some thousands of Hizballah rocket attacks over the course of the war. The war began July 12 with a Hizballah attack on northern Israel that killed several IDF soldiers and resulted in two others being kidnapped.

Eliad Shraga, who is the chairman of the Movement for Quality Government, told the attending protestors, "We saw on the home front how the government of Israel refused to declare a national emergency, abandoning the residents of the North. And we saw on the war front how the political echelon made decisions without a decision-making process and without setting realistic goals." Israeli State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss vowed to fully investigate the political leadership`s conduct during the war, with or without the prime minister`s consent.