Winograd implementation committee to meet Thursday

The committee is to translate the interim report's recommendations into a working program.

By HERB KEINON
amnon lipkin-shahak (photo credit: Courtesy)
amnon lipkin-shahak
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The committee Prime Minister Ehud Olmert set up to implement the interim Winograd Report's recommendations will meet for the first time Thursday, government officials said Sunday. The committee is headed by former chief of General Staff and government minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak. It includes National Security Council (NSC) head Ilan Mizrahi, Foreign Ministry director-general Aharon Abramovitch, Defense Ministry security branch head Yehiel Horev and representatives from the IDF, Mossad and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). The committee also includes former president and CEO of Teva Israel Makov, attorney Meir Tzelmeir, former NSC staffer Yisraela Oren and former deputy foreign minister Yehuda Ben-Meir. Two days after the Winograd Committee released its interim report, the cabinet met in special session and set up the committee to implement the recommendations. The government also decided to establish a ministerial committee, headed by Olmert and including six other ministers, to oversee implementation of the recommendations. The Winograd Committee called for a number of urgent "structural and institutional recommendations," including: • The improvement of the quality of discussions and decision making within the government through strengthening and deepening staff work; strict enforcement of the prohibition of leaks; improving the knowledge base of all members of the government on core issues of Israel's challenges; and orderly procedures for presentation of issues for discussion and resolution. • Full incorporation of the Foreign Ministry in security decisions with political and diplomatic aspects. • Substantial improvement in the functioning of the NSC, the establishment of a national assessment team, and creating a center for crises management in the Prime Minister's Office. The job of the committee, government officials said, was to translate those recommendations into a working program.