What the Winograd Report Means for Lebanon

Further on the Winograd report, Nick Blanford in Beirut e-mails a memo on how Israel's it has become a hot topic in Lebanon. Some are asking why the Lebanese don't hold their own commission of inquiry into the causes of last summer's pointless, devastating war--i.e., Hizballah's actions.

The findings of the Winograd report have played into Lebanon's political crisis. Hizballah said the report's assertion that top Israeli leaders are guilty of “very serious failings” in their handling of the war vindicated the claim that the Lebanese Shiite group won a "divine victory" over Israel last summer. It spurred Hizballah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah into some unusual magnanimity toward his Israeli foe when he declared that Israel's sense of accountability was "worthy of respect."

Lebanon's Ad Diyar newspaper, which generally supports the Hizballah-led opposition, asked why the government and its supporters in the March 14 political coalition remained silent over the report having earlier challenged Hizballah's claims of victory. "None of them utters one word in reaction to the report that admitted Israel's defeat," it crowed.

But then the March 14 coalition began suggesting that Lebanon should hold its own “Winograd” commission of enquiry into the causes and handling of the war. "They [the Israelis] change governments as if they were changing hairstyles, without inflicting damage to their public. Our rulers, by contrast, are not answerable," wrote Elias Attallah, leader of the Democratic Left organization in the pan Arab Ash-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Proponents of a Lebanese enquiry, of course, are drawn from pro-government ranks, hoping to censure Hizballah for triggering Israel's massive onslaught against Lebanon by abducting two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

But Walid Choucair, a columnist with the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, warned that an enquiry, even if it were held, should not be used as a political tool to hammer Hizballah. Instead, it should examine how the war brought the Lebanese together and raised the profile of the Lebanese government. "Isn't it logical that the Lebanese review of the war and post-war facts includes an inquiry into the reason behind the shift from the unity of the Lebanese people during the war into the deepest Lebanese fission ever," he concluded.

Still, trying to depoliticize any post-war enquiry here is a fruitless task given the intensity of the political crisis. Edmond Saab, editor of Lebanon's An Nahar daily, called for a state enquiry to "investigate whether Hizballah erred in miscalculating the Israeli retaliation." But Nasrallah has already admitted that Hizballah miscalculated Israel's reaction to the kidnapping, and if an enquiry was launched--which it won't be--it would just become yet another point of contention between Lebanon's feuding factions.