My latest New Matilda column is about the recently released Winograd Report in Israel and what it says about the institutional failures within the Jewish state:
The release last week of the Israeli Government’s Winograd Report was designed to reveal the failures of the Lebanon adventure and hold military and political leaders to account. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former Defence Minister Amir Peretz were criticised for their conduct but Olmert appears to have saved his job. “We are all guilty” was how one Israeli commentator interpreted the report. Another labelled the war a victory. Winograd gave Israel a pass on its use of cluster bombs, despite warning that its future use may not conform to international law.
Amnesty International rightly challenged the report. It was, according to Amnesty spokesman Malcolm Smart, “another missed opportunity to address the policies and decisions behind the grave violations of international humanitarian law – including war crimes – committed by Israeli forces” in Lebanon. Smart went on: “The indiscriminate killing of many Lebanese civilians not involved in the hostilities and the deliberate and wanton destruction of civilian properties and infrastructure on a massive scale were given no more than token consideration by the commission.”