Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, will face one of his toughest challenges today when a damning report into his leadership during the 2006 Lebanon War is released, threatening his political career and the renewed peace process on which he has staked his reputation.
The publication of the Winograd Committee report will also create a dilemma for Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, who had pledged to lead his Labour Party out of the shrinking coalition government once the committee released its findings. Such a move would bring down the Government at a time when the right-wing opposition Likud party is riding high in the polls.
Mr Olmert's aides hope that the final text of the committee will not go farther than the criticism levelled at the 62-year-old in an interim report eight months ago. That found Mr Olmert and his senior political and military colleagues - almost all of whom have resigned - guilty of severe failures in the war launched after Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid in July 2006.
Israel responded to the killings and abductions of its soldiers with an air war that failed to stem the rocket fire from Hezbollah. More than a thousand people died in the 33-day conflict,and the inconclusive result of the war led to a deep crisis within Israel's military and political classes.
Aides to the Prime Minister have pointed out that international peacekeepers who were deployed after the conflict have kept Hezbollah rockets away from the border, giving northern Israel 16 months of unprecedented peace.
However, the report is likely to highlight the controversial decision to launch a major ground offensive, in which 33 Israeli soldiers were killed, 60 hours before a ceasefire agreement brokered by the United Nations was due to take effect.
Reservist soldiers who were thrown into battle with poor equipment and support, and relatives of the dead soldiers, have called for Mr Olmert's resignation. “We know we are becoming part of the political game, but we don't care. We just want to see something happen. We want to see accountability,” Amit Bar-El, a reservist who was injured in the war, said.
More than half of 18-year-old men in Israel are enlisted in the army and Yuval Steinitz, a Likud MP, said that the voice of the reserve soldiers had struck a chord. “We have long sought for the Prime Minister to take accountability and step down from office. If the public regards our voices with cynicism, they might listen to the voice of the reserve soldiers with a new ear,” he said.
The fallout of the political crisis has been felt in the fragile peace talks with the Palestinians. This week Mr Olmert told his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners Shas that the crucial issue of dividing Jerusalem would be dealt with only at the end of negotiations.
Front Page Features