Last update - 00:00 18/06/2007
Ben-Eliezer to war probe: Halutz misled PM in run up to conflict
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent
Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told the committee investigating the Second Lebanon War that he believed then-military chief Dan Halutz had misled the prime minister during the decision-making process on going to war.
In Ben-Eliezer's November 2006 testimony, which was released Monday, he said that Halutz had convinced Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he could "solve the problem from the air, and it would be okay... I think he misled him. I say that with great reservation."
Ben-Eliezer also told the panel that he didn't think that Halutz had the necessary skills to be chief of staff, irrespective of his handling of the war.
The Winograd Commission was appointed by the government following the war in order to investigate the failures of the political and military echelons during Israel's war with Hezbollah.
Ben-Eliezer, who served as defense minister between the years 2001-2002 explained Israel's restraint policy in the years between the 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon to the outbreak of war six years later.
"The Lebanese issue was not on our agenda," he said. "The strategy was to contain the Lebanon issue and not broaden it. We wanted to focus our strength on the [Palestinian] territories."