Reservists, bereaved families to protest outside Knesset

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
David Einhorn will return to reserve duty this March for the first time since the Second Lebanon War without any faith in the country's two top leaders, he told The Jerusalem Post. "I go with a heavy heart," he said. He has mistrusted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert since the end of the war, which cost him his son, Yehonatan, 22, on the 19th day. On Sunday, he added Defense Minister Ehud Barak to the list of unworthy leaders because of the politician's failure to take the Labor party out of the government after last week's publication of the final Winograd Report on the war. "What trust can I now have in them?" asked Einhorn, adding that he was among those who had believed Barak would quit the government. Particularly appalling to him has been the air of victory in the Prime Minister's Office that the media has reported. So he, reservists and other bereaved family members of soldiers who fell in the Second Lebanon War plan to stage a protest on Monday evening in front of the Knesset to demand that Olmert and Barak quit. They will be joined by politicians from the Left and the Right, including former Meretz party leader Yossi Sarid and the head of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, Dani Dayan. Members of the grassroots group plan to attend the special plenum session on the report, at which Olmert is expected to speak. They will also meet with members of the parliamentary group evaluating the report. Since the report's release last Wednesday, he has been reading the 600-page tome. "It is very heavy, very hard and very serious," said Einhorn, who lives on Moshav Gamzu. "Anyone who says he has finished it is lying." He and other reservists had harsh words for Barak, who, he said, "burned himself. He could have won the trust of the entire nation." Reservist Tomer Boadana of Uzi Dayan's Tafnit party pledged to continue working to remove Olmert from office. "We are very disappointed that the defense minister won't stand by his word. Where has the brave warrior Ehud disappeared to?" he asked. But their battle for responsible leadership is not dependent on Barak, he said. "We will continue on," he declared.