Winograd panel member Dror: PM's resignation was long overdue

By HAVIV RETTIG GUR
The resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is long overdue because he lacks "the necessary strategic thinking" and "does not fit the needs of the country," said Winograd Committee member Prof. Yehezkel Dror. "I'm very sorry about what I'm saying," Dror told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. Olmert's resignation "is a personal tragedy, but better a personal tragedy than a [tragedy] for the country," he said. Dror continued: "It's unimaginable in a western country for a government not to resign after it was found to have seriously mismanaged a war by an investigative committee it appointed." The fact that this did not happen earlier, after the interim and final reports of the committee, "is a bad sign for the Israeli political system." The Winograd Report found many problems in the structure of the political system itself that contributed to the failures of the Second Lebanon War, but, Dror insisted, "one cannot release leaders from responsibility. You can say the [political] system pushed [Olmert] to appoint a minister of defense who did not know anything about defense, but he also failed to set up an advisory system to compensate for the lack of strategic thinking." Dror added that a prime minister "who lacks a strategic head and the support of the country" is not now equipped to advance a peace process.