Israel faces a wave of demonstrations calling for the resignation of Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, after a report on the conduct of last year’s war in Lebanon, which is expected to criticise his “misguided and rash judgment”, writes Uzi Mahnaimi.

A leak from the report of the Winograd commission, which is published tomorrow, suggested that it would be highly critical of Olmert’s decision to launch the campaign after Hezbollah guerrillas abducted two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Olmert, who lacks a military background, will be accused of giving in too readily to his generals and of lacking the foresight to see how the war, widely regarded as a failure, would develop. But the commission is understood to have decided against demanding that he should quit.

Its report is expected to argue that the narrowness of Olmert’s principal war aim - the return of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, the two soldiers abducted by Hezbollah on July 12 last year - was an error.

Shimon Peres, the deputy premier, who opposed the war, told the commission: “If you declare that your aim is to free the kidnapped soldiers, you place yourself at the mercy of the enemy - why make such declarations?”

In a further blow to Olmert’s reputation, General Gadi Eizenkot, the soldier in charge of operations during the war, said last week: “A couple of hours after the kidnapping of the soldiers, we knew we would not be able to get them back.”

The opposition Likud party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is expected to use the report’s conclusions to call for the resignation of Olmert.

Israel has denied a claim that Olmert told a German magazine that Iran’s nuclear programme could be “set back years” if Israel fired 1,000 cruise missiles at the country in a 10-day attack.

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