Israeli High Court Petition

The Israeli state comptroller's office is set tomorrow to release its interim report on the management of the home front from last summer’s war with Lebanon and the OC Home Front Commander is petitioning the Israeli High Court to delay publication of the report reports the Jerusalem Post:

OC Home Front Command Maj.-Gen. Yitzhak Gershon petitioned the High Court of Justice on Monday to postpone the publication of State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss's report on the management of the home front during the Lebanon war, at least until Gershon has had time to respond to the report's conclusions, Israel Radio reported.

However, Lindenstrauss held firm in the face of the controversy raging over the planned release of the report, and intends to publish it on Tuesday as planned. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also demanded that Lindenstrauss postpone the release of the findings.

On Sunday, Knesset legal advisor Nurit Elstein asked Knesset State Comptroller's Committee chairman MK Zevulun Orlev (NU-NRP) to delay the committee meeting on the comptroller's report, arguing that its subjects - the government and the IDF - have not yet received a copy and therefore not had an opportunity to respond as required by law. Orlev said Monday that Elstein's request had been a recommendation only and that "MKs set the agenda, not clerks." Orlev said that he plans to hold the committee meeting as scheduled.

But the OC Home front command is not the only one squirming at the publication of the comptroller’s report. Olmert is doing his own little dance:

Long simmering tension between Olmert and Lindenstrauss boiled over in a sharply worded three-page letter Olmert sent to the Knesset Sunday, accusing Lindenstrauss of having made up his mind before he began his investigation of the government's functioning during last summer's war and of "systematic leaks" to the press.

In the letter, addressed to Orlev and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik Orlev, Olmert hinted that there may be room for criminal action against those who leaked information from the interim findings of the comptroller's report on the state of home front preparedness for the war. "Leaking a report even before it was passed on to those being investigated is a criminal offense," Olmert wrote.

I’m not sure Olmert can garner any sympathy or support for his position since the walls of his own political meanderings seem to be particularly fragile.