Olmert to address Winograd findings

50 MKs sign petition forcing PM to participate in plenum prior to release of committee's findings.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
olmert says fuck 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski )
olmert says fuck 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski )
Fifty MKs signed a petition Sunday that will force Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to a Knesset debate on the Winograd Committee's findings on the Second Lebanon War. Coalition MKs Ophir Paz-Pines (Labor) and Avigdor Yitzhaki (Kadima) joined Meretz faction chairwoman MK Zehava Gal-On and Likud faction chairman Gideon Sa'ar to spearhead the move. "The Knesset cannot allow Prime Minister Olmert to continue evading responsibility for the failures of the Second Lebanon War, especially in light of his statement last week that he will not resign irrespective of the Winograd findings," said Sa'ar. Coalition MKs Eitan Cabel, Colette Avital, Shelly Yacimovich and Danny Yatom from Labor, and Marina Solodkin (Kadima), Moshe Sharoni (Gil Pensioners) and Yisrael Hasson (Israel Beiteinu) also signed the petition, which said, "Olmert must not continue to evade responsibility." The coalition MKs sent out an additional explanation stating that they felt compelled to sign the petition for the sake of the public, and not out of spite for the prime minister. Kadima MKs, however, blasted the petition, calling it a "cheap ploy to try and capture more headlines." "These coalition MKs are dragging out everything for the sake of their own PR," said one Kadima MK. "The report is the answer to the public's request for an investigation into the Second Lebanon War." According to the Basic Law: The Knesset, the parliament "may, at the request of at least 40 members, demand the participation of a prime minister at the plenum." Meanwhile, Olmert accused State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss of trying to pressure State Attorney Moshe Lador into rejecting the police recommendation and indict him for allegedly interfering in a tender for the controlling share of Bank Leumi on behalf of business friends. The Internet news site Ynet reported earlier in the day that "a senior source" in the State Comptroller's Office had said the police recommendation was not the last word on the matter and that Lador "would have to consider legal issues that the police did not resolve." Olmert blasted the source of the statement for hiding behind the identify of a "senior source," adding that "anyone who has eyes in his head knows who that 'senior source' is who prefers not to reveal his name." He charged that Lindenstrauss, who originally referred the Bank Leumi affair to Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz so that Mazuz could order a criminal investigation, was trying to save his honor, since he "created [the entire affair] and blew [it] out of proportion." Dan Izenberg contributed to this report.