War probe member: Half our recommendations still unimplemented
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 00:40 15/09/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1020978.html

A member of the Winograd panel on Sunday blasted the government and defense
establishment for not implementing all the recommendations made in the
damning report on their conduct during the Second Lebanon War.

"About half the recommendations have not been put into action," said Prof.
Yehezkel Dror. He made the comments at a conference organized by the Geneva
Initiative.

Dror charged that since the publication of the final report in January,
"there has been no great improvement in operational and strategic
doctrines."

The professor's remarks came despite great efforts by government ministries
and the Israel Defense Forces to implement recommendations made in the
report on the 35-day conflict with Hezbollah in 2006.

He said that the recent decisions to set up new governmental bodies -
including the national emergency authority and the national security board -
are favorable but "do not address Israel's core issues."

Prof. Dror also criticized the security establishment for "interfering in
political issues far more than it should," and the prevalent state of
affairs whereby the head of the Military Intelligence is "the national
evaluator," almost single-handedly in charge of long-term planning.

"But the security establishment should not be condemned in this respect
because the political circles have failed to give directives. The IDF and
the security establishment just fill the gap," He told Haaretz.