Last update - 00:00 06/08/2007
War probe to allow hearings for those affected by final report
By Yuval Azulay, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
The Winograd Committee announced Monday it will allow key figures who may be affected by its findings to plea their case to the panel before it publishes its final report.
In a letter to former defense minister Amir Peretz (labor), retired judge Eliyahu Winograd said the committee he heads that is charged with probing the Second Lebanon War will summon all those who may be unfavorably implicated in its conclusions.
"We are currently endeavoring over learning and analyzing the voluminous material gathered, in order to formulate decisions that will allow initial identification of those who may be affected by the report, and in what way they may affected," Winograd wrote.
"We will turn without delay to all those who may be hurt and give them an appropriate chance to plea their case. All this also applies to those who have already testified," he added.
Winograd's comments were made in response to a letter by Peretz's lawyers who asked to receive all the material gathered by the committee, as well as the right to summon and question people over their testimonies if they implicated their client.
Earlier Monday, the testimony of Defense Minister Ehud Barak (Labor) to the committee was made public in which he justified not reacting to the kidnapping of three soldiers by Hezbollah in 2000.
In the testimony, Barak told the panel that although a decision had been made to retaliate against any attack of Israel's northern border following the Israel Defense Forces' withdrawal from Lebanon, he decided that opening a third front did not appear to be the right move.
"It was the beginning of October, a few days after the Intifada and the Arab-Israeli riots broke out," Barak said.
Barak said that no previous statement can dismiss a prime minister or defense minister from assessing the situation in a concrete manner, asking what would be the goal of the action and whether or not it would be good for Israel.
On IDF's withdrawal from Lebanon, Barak said that it was justified as it brought, for the first time in 18 years, six consecutive years of quiet on the northern border.
"Considering the circumstances and the manner in which it began, the IDF withdrawal from Lebanon went very well," Barak said, adding that Israel was "a stone's throw away from leaving Lebanon under fire with out any possibility of justifying the losses."
Barak also told the panel members that he assessed at the time that after IDF's withdrawal from Lebanon, Hezbollah would not dare to attack "because they would have no legitimacy to do so."
Barak said that during his tenure as prime minister, he established a system of fortifications around the northern border, which prevented Hizbollah from setting up bases there.
Barak also said that the IDF carried out extensive and continuous wide-scale training exercises during his tenure, which included live fire. Barak added that the reserves units would take part in these exercises every few years.
Barak rejected the argument that the withdrawal from Lebanon increased the threat of rockets on the North. "The possibility of a rocket attack on the north was not new to us, but in the past we had the tools to put an end to the attack within a few days," Barak said.
Panel member Ruth Gavison asked Barak why he didn't bolster the North's social and economic needs following the withdrawal, including the bomb shelters.
Barak responded that there was a plan in the works worth billions to bolster the North, but since it was a long-term plan, he had to first settle for short term, temporary solutions.