The decision will force the PM to begin working on finding a new committee to investigate the war.
By YAAKOV KATZ
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will need to begin working on finding a new committee to investigate the IDF's performance in Lebanon after former chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Amnon Lipkin-Shahak told The Jerusalem Post Sunday he was dismantling a committee he had been appointed to head to investigate the military's management of the second Lebanon war.
Established last month by Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Lipkin-Shahak's committee was given the mandate to probe the IDF's level of preparation for the war in Lebanon and the management of the operations in enemy territory by the General Staff and Northern Command from July 12 - the date of the kidnapping of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev - until August 14, when the cease-fire with Hizbullah went into effect.
The committee met twice but quickly froze its proceedings after Olmert announced his intention to establish his own committee. Last week, the prime minister announced the appointment of former head of the Mossad Nahum Admoni to head a committee to investigate the diplomatic echelon. Olmert said he would appoint a second separate committee to probe the IDF.
Lipkin-Shahak said he informed Peretz last week of his decision to disband the committee. "There is no point in having two committees," Lipkin-Shahak said Sunday night. "There is only room for one committee that can do all the work and investigate the IDF and the diplomatic echelon."
Last Thursday, Peretz - who appointed the Lipkin-Shahak committee - announced suddenly that he was in favor of the establishment of a state-appointed commission of inquiry to be led by a Supreme Court justice. Peretz's decision put him in opposition to Olmert's plan, which called for two commissions of inquiry and avoided the broader investigation a state commission would conduct.