ISRAELI INQUIRY OF JUSTICE = NO JUSTICE

Israel waited months for the report on the Lebanon war to be issued by the government appointed commission. It was finally handed down last week, and as was expected by most was nothing but a watered down, whitewashed version of what actually happened.

But, were we to expect anything different from a government sponsored report on their own war crimes? As is pointed out below, EVERY EXPERIENCED politician knows the axiom: He who chooses the members of a commission determines its conclusions in advance.

From Stalingrad to Winograd

By Uri Avnery

FOR SOME days, the country looked like the Place de la Concorde in 1793. The entire public sat expectantly facing the guillotine, waiting for the tumbril to bring the marquis, for the marquis to lie down, for the blade to fall on his neck and for a soldier to hold up the bloody, severed head for the amusement of the spectators.

All eyes were fixed on the raised blade of the Winograd commission. The judge sat down before the cameras and read out the report. But the blade did not come down. No reserve soldier raised the bloody, severed head. The head remained in its place. Ehud Olmert is no marquis, and his head remains firmly on his shoulders.