Jerusalem - The Israeli government believed that last
summer's war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas would last only 10
days to two weeks, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a commission
investigating the conflict, according to partial testimonies released
Thursday.
The testimony of Olmert, Defence Minister Peretz and former
military chief of staff Dan Halutz, was released to the public less
than two weeks after the commission published an interim report.
This was harshly critical of the way the three handled the first
five days of the war which, despite the government's initial
assessment, lasted for 33 days.
The release of the testimonies increased calls - first made after
the interim report was released on April 30 - for Olmert and Peretz
to resign, as Halutz did in January, because of the way the war was
handled.
Olmert told the commission that throughout the conflict there had
been something 'defective' in the army's philosophy and perception of
command.
'Something in the way we operated our forces, something in how we
controlled them, wasn't what we expected - and there is no doubt that
this created a gap between what we could achieve, and what we
actually achieved,' he said.
Soldiers who fought in the war complained afterward that they went
into battle under-trained, and with faulty logistics. Olmert told the
commission that he had not been told the army was not adequately
prepared.
He said Halutz had said the army was qualified and strong, and had
enough forces at its disposal to do the job without calling up
additional battalions.
Peretz made a similar point in his testimony, telling the
commission that he 'was not presented with sufficient information
that our army had not undergone sufficient training during any
stage.'
Halutz, the first air force man to become chief of staff of the
predominantly land-oriented Israel Defence Force, said the army had
not shown enough determination in trying to achieve its goals.
Criticised in public after the war for his over-reliance on air
power in the conflict's opening stages, he told the commission that
there had been a consensus during the war's first days that the time
was not ripe for an extensive ground operation.
Adressing the decision to launch an offensive in response to the
July 12 Hezbollah cross-border raid which saw two Israeli soldiers
abducted and eight killed, Olmert said he thought Israel 'had no
other choice but to act immediately.'
The commission of inquiry into the war, headed by a retired judge,
said in its interim report released on April 30 that the government
had embarked on the war without setting 'clear goals,' fully weighing
other options and thinking through a 'detailed, comprehensive'
military plan.'
Peretz, a former trade union leader whose appointment to the
defence portfolio owed more to political necessities than
professional considerations, told the commission that he believed
that 'he made very significant decisions which had a very positive
effect on the developments on the ground.'
In its interim report, the commission said that Peretz failed to
hold 'systematic consultations' with experienced experts despite his
own lack of experience, which also prevented him from challenging 'in
a competent way' both the military and the prime minister, and thus
failed in fulfilling his duties.
The publication Thursday of the partial testimonies was
accompanied by a statement of two commission members expressing
reservations about making public the remarks Olmert, Peretz and
Halutz had made in camera.
They said they feared that officials would not be hesitant to
cooperate fully with future inquiries. The commission is due to issue
its final report in July.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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