Junior Minister Quits Over Olmert War Failings

A member of the Israeli cabinet today resigned in protest at the handling of the Lebanon war, increasing the political pressure on the prime minister, Ehud Olmert.

Eitan Cabel - until today a minister without portfolio from the Labour party, Mr Olmert's main coalition partner - told a news conference: "Ehud Olmert must resign. He must bear responsibility. I can no longer sit in a government led by Ehud Olmert."

Mr Cabel's resignation follows inquiry findings published yesterday into the Lebanon war that harshly criticised the prime minister and his defence minister, Amir Peretz from Labour, as well as the army chief, Dan Halutz, who had already quit.

Mr Olmert, who heads the centrist Kadima party, said he would not resign, insisting he was the best man to put things right.

"It would not be right to quit and I have no intention of doing so," Mr Olmert told Israelis in a short televised address yesterday, hours after the country watched the inquiry head, former supreme court judge Eliyahu Winograd, read out scathing criticism of Mr Olmert's conduct of the war.

The panel said the government had rubber-stamped the decision to go to war but Mr Olmert bore "supreme responsibility" for launching the air, sea and land offensive without a proper plan after Hizbullah seized two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

Several editorials today called on Mr Olmert to step down. The embattled prime minister can expect more criticism on Thursday when opponents from both the left and right plan to protest in Tel Aviv.

Aside from former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu of the rightwing opposition Likud party, Mr Olmert faces potential challengers on his own team, including the foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, though some question her experience.

Between 1,035 and 1,191 Lebanese civilians and combatants were killed in the inconclusive war, as were 119 Israeli soldiers and 39 civilians, according to official figures from the two sides.