The Israeli political system is already dealing with the findings of the interim report of the Winograd Committee, established to evaluate Israel’s difficulties in last summer’s war in Lebanon. The report found “very serious failings” in the war’s planning and execution, and, according to a summary on the Jerusalem Post Web site, it imposed “the primary responsibility for these failures on the Prime Minister, the minister of defense and the (outgoing) Chief of Staff. All three made a decisive personal contribution to these decisions and the way in which they were made.”

The findings are prompting a lot of hand-wringing and self-searching. But from where we sit, here in America, the report itself, and the capacity for selfcriticism it indicates, is a sign of Israel’s strength. Can one imagine an independent government commission in Jordan or Saudi Arabia writing a report scathingly criticizing the Hashemite or Saudi king, then seeing the report published in the local press and debated and discussed openly by the population? Such an action would be impossible in Egypt or in Syria — anyone who tried to convene such a committee would be thrown in jail.

So in our view, those enemies of Israel who see in the Winograd report a sign of weakness or of self-doubt in Israel are mistaken. It is through such open debate that societies are able to improve themselves, which is why Israel, whatever its faults, has an economy that is much stronger than its neighbors, a military that is mightier than its enemies, and a population that is more free.