The next challenge

The NIE report regarding the Iran nuclear situation published at the end of last year caused an international storm. The US president, the Israeli prime minister, European and Asian leaders, intelligence agencies and media centers - all attributed supreme importance to the document and proceeded to analyze its meaning.

This is not surprising in and of itself: the possibility that Iran is developing a nuclear program, the possibility that significant economic and political pressure will be applied on Iran; the possibility that the campaign to stop Iran's nuclear program will fail; the possibility that attacking Iran's nuclear sites will provoke a counter-attack; these are all scenarios that have intensely occupied the minds of decision-makers around the world in the Middle East and for world powers such as the US, China, the UK, France and Germany equally. The NIE report was bound to have an impact, direct or indirect, on the scenarios above - and has therefore generated such resonance.

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Attempts to taint FADC war report will fail

The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's report on the Second Lebanon War numbers 151 pages. The committee worked hard to complete it for over a year; hundreds of hours of discussions, tours and meetings were invested into it; all military investigations of IDF operations and government and cabinet meeting protocols were analyzed in preparation; dozens of officers and reservists were invited to the discussions to detail their takes and experiences during the battles.

The final result is a thoroughly detailed document that strives to describe the war from a balanced perspective. Not everything is dark, not everything is superficial, clear-cut and sensational. There were failures and there were achievements. There were incorrect decisions made and there were courageous rulings.

Not in vain was the document signed by all the committee members, 17 in total from 9 different political factions from the Coalition and the Opposition. Granted, many of them had remarks and reservations about certain conclusions appearing in the report. Nevertheless, the lion's share of the findings, the conclusions and the recommendations were agreed to by complete consensus.

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