Cracks emerged Friday in Israel's coalition government over the Lebanon war, as Defence Minister Amir Peretz demanded a full-scale inquiry, putting himself at odds with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "I have come to the conclusion that, to guarantee the fairness of an inquiry, its transparency and to ensure public trust, a real state commission should be created," declared Peretz after talks with MPs from his Labour party.MPs in the centre-left party, Olmert's main coalition partner, gathered to discuss the 2007 budget, but the focus switched to a state commission, Israel's most authoritative type of inquiry, to examine failures of the 34-day war. Most of LabourÂ’s 19 MPs have already demanded a state commission rather than the more limited public inquiry ordered by Olmert. OlmertÂ’s decision, unveiled in a televised address that stressed the successes of the war, has been heavily criticised from both the left and right.
But Peretz is now publicly at odds with Olmert, who has flatly rejected any question of muck-raking at a state commission level, leaving aides to leak their annoyance to the press under the shield of anonymity. “Peretz continues to duck his responsibilities, just like he has done since the end of fighting in Lebanon. Politically speaking, his behaviour is contemptible,” the Yediot Aharonot daily quoted one Olmert aide as saying. The spat made headlines in the country’s two biggest selling newspapers, Yediot and the tabloid-style Maariv. “Olmert’s Aides: Peretz Has Lost His Mind” and “Olmert’s Aides: Peretz’s Behavior Dumb” they cried, respectively.
Peretz initially opposed a state commission until he came under pressure from left-leaning circles in his own party, and was accused of “zigzagging” by Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer in the MPs’ meeting.