Israel's commission of inquiry into last year's war in Lebanon will not recommend that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign, despite censuring his government's handling of the campaign, an Israeli newspaper said yesterday.
The Winograd Commission, which accused Olmert in an April interim report of lacking "judgment, responsibility and prudence" in his decision to go to war against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, has been expected by many of the government's critics to call for his ouster in its conclusions.
But the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, citing sources on the five-member panel of jurists and ex-generals, said the final report would stop short of "drawing personal conclusions" that could give formal imprimatur to public demands that Olmert quit.
A Winograd Commission spokesman declined comment.
Olmert, who unlike several of his predecessors lacks a military pedigree, has argued that the war improved Israel's security by banishing Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah from its frontier strongholds and boosting a UN peacekeeper force.
But Hezbollah managed to fire 4,000 missiles into northern Israel, driving a million residents to shelters and shaking the Jewish state's belief in its military superiority in the region.
Olmert has vowed to survive the Commission reports' fallout and serve out his term in office.
Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon welcomed the Winograd Commission's reported reprieve, saying it would help Olmert keep together his fractious coalition government as he prepares for a US-led peace conference with the Palestinians next month.
Some Olmert critics predicted that the Winograd Commission would pull its punches, noting that it was appointed by the government despite public calls for a more independent panel.
The popularity of the man hailed as one of Israel's most able politicians when he officially assumed office last May sunk to single-digits earlier this year as a result of last year's inconclusive war in Lebanon and a string of graft scandals involving senior government officials.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of