Winograd's Dror blasts government

Winograd Committee member Prof. Yehezkel Dror blasted the government and its head on Saturday, saying Prime Minister Ehud Olmert must be replaced.

"Quite clearly, [Olmert] does not show strategic thinking. If the prime minister cannot compensate for the lack in strategic perception by restructuring the National Security Council (NSC) in a new format [as suggested in the Winograd Committee's partial report], then he must be replaced," Dror told Israel Radio Saturday.

Dror said that after the partial report by the committee - established to probe Israel's perceived failures in the Second Lebanon War - stated that the political echelon had failed miserably in managing the campaign, the government should have resigned.

He accused the government of promising a series of overhauls in the wake of the partial report and then failing to conduct the corrections recommended by the committee.

Dror emphasized that his criticism was against the government only and said the military has been working hard to fix problems found in the aftermath of the war.

"The current state of affairs worries me greatly, I would not trust this government with making critical decisions," said the professor. "It might be tragic for the prime minister, but better have this than a tragic outcome for the State."

When asked whether he was genuinely afraid for the country's future, Dror said he was "not [worried by] any acute danger. But even after 60 years of independent existence as a state, the future is not in our pocket. After [the Six Day War in] 1967, no changes were made to reflect the fact that Israel has become a regional power."

The peace process, he said, not specifying whether he was referring to the Palestinian or Syrian tracks, was not being guided by a strategic thought process, and "this is a terrible shame."

Dror has been the most vocal of the Winograd Committee's members and came under fire several months ago when the daily Ma'ariv ran an interview with him in which his statements were interpreted by some, mainly opposition politicians, as suggesting that Olmert should remain in power just to prevent a government led by Likud and Binyamin Netanyahu from taking office.

Dror has rejected the accusations, denied any political considerations in the committee's work, and said the committee dealt with general issues of governance, which, he stressed, were more important than casting personal blame on specific persons. "If we would opt for personal recommendations we would get embroiled in lengthy court procedures and you wouldn't have the final report published even today," he said.