WINOGRAD--AND THEN THERE WAS ONE: John Podhoretz writes in The New York Post about the goal of the Winograd Commission and who they are focusing on:

The commissioners specifically say that they chose to release some of their findings early because they were being used by Olmert as a way of avoiding necessary changes in the wake of the war. "Initially," they write, "we hoped that the appointment of the Commission [would] serve as an incentive to accelerate [change] . . . In some ways an opposite, and worrying, process emerged - a process of 'waiting' for the Commission's Report."

Therefore, they conclude, "we decided to publish . . . in the hope that the relevant bodies will act urgently to change and correct all that it implies."

The "relevant bodies" here are the Israeli parliament and the voting public. The report's authors have set their laser-guided sights at Olmert's reputation and political career.

Consider: The report has three named targets. One of them is Dan Halutz, the army's chief of staff during the war. He resigned months ago. The second is Defense Minister Amir Peretz. He will be losing his job in the next few weeks anyway - because he is going to be removed as the leader of the Labor Party and will no longer be a minister in this government.

Only Olmert is left standing.

Not for long. Unless, that is, the Israeli political system has grown so weak and unresponsive that he can continue to hang on by his fingernails because his partners in the governing coalition fear being ruined along with him in a new election.

Well yes, there is that.

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