The Winograd Committee investigating the Second Lebanon War released on Thursday the transcripts of three testimonies heard by the panel. In one of them, a member of the committee, Major General (res.) Menahem Einan, notes that Israel's policy of restraint along the northern border in the years before the war contributed to the erosion of Israel's deterrent against Hezbollah.

In another of the testimonies, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said he would not have embarked on the war in Lebanon last July if he were in charge.

Peres was quick to contain the impact of the revelations last night and said his comments were taken out of context.

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"Very partial segments of the transcripts were released ... When I was asked by the committee why I did not vote against [the war] I said that I saw a Prime Minister conducting things in difficult days and I commend him for that, and it is my duty as a citizen to enable him to carry out his duty and express my reservations but support him without hesitation. And my support continues to this day," Peres said Thursday night.

The committee released to the public segments of transcripts of three of the first testimonies it heard, which also include those of former Military Intelligence chief Amos Malka, and Arnon Ben-Ami, head of the Emergency Economy Administration.

The committee is also planning to release next week segments of the transcripts of the testimony of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and wartime chief of staff Dan Halutz.

This is the first stage before the publication of all the transcripts, once they are examined and edited by the security and military censorship. The committee agreed to release them following growing pressure from the Supreme Court, which warned on Thursday that any delay in their publication is tantamount to contempt of court.

During the testimony of Malka, Einan asked him about Israel's policy of restraint in the North, the pullout from southern Lebanon in May 2000 and the period up to the abduction of the two soldiers and the outbreak of war in July 2006.

Einan argued that the abduction of three soldiers at Har Dov in October 2000 was a "crossing of a line."

"Between that time and up to the abduction on July 12 there were more such incidents, and again, the IDF reaction was limited, and almost became an idee fixe. I will call it a worldview, or a policy that is called 'containment' in military terminology," Einan said.

He blamed this on the loss of deterrent and said the "rules of the game" that Israel established in the North favored Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Einan drops the qualifying "almost" in his reference to an idee fixe, and in a conversation among two senior IDF professionals, during Malka's testimony, there is a general understanding that the parallel drawn is to Military Intelligence's views prior to the Yom Kippur War, which was later described as one of the main reasons for the failures of the war.

According to the segments of the testimony released, Peres said that "were it up to me, I would not have gone into this war."

In addition to criticism of the decision to go to war, Peres also opposed the speech of Prime Minister Olmert in which he pinpointed objectives for the war.

"I would also not have made a list of objectives for the war. We had no objective because we did not initiate the war. We were attacked and we needed to fend off the attack. That is it. If you say that the main objective of the war is to free the abducted [soldiers], you leave yourself vulnerable to the whims of your enemies. Why would you want to say that?"

Regarding the heavy criticism against the government, Peres explained that "war is a difficult thing and you do not control all situations, there are many surprises. War is a competition of making mistakes, when the biggest mistake is the actual war, and whoever wants to avoid mistakes must avoid going to war, to be drawn into it, to think thousands of times before doing so," Peres said.

In his opinion, the IDF was not prepared for the war. "I believe the army entered the war tired, because it has been involved in a war that is not a war [fighting terrorism in the territories] which lacks glory and victories. It comprises effort and preventing disaster. And it is exhausting."

However, Peres was unequivocal about his evaluation of the war. "It is impossible to say that this was a failed war, and it cannot be said that it was a successful war. It did not fail because in the end Hezbollah is still unable to explain why it went to war. Not even to its own people."

Meanwhile, to maximize the impact of the Winograd Committee's findings with a rally in which the public might call for the implementation of the committee's conclusions or the resignation of the government, Uzi Dayan, chairman of the Tafnit movement, has booked Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. Dayan booked the venue for a number of possible dates during the second half of April, at which time the committee's interim report is expected to be made available to the public.

The organizers of the rally at Rabin Square would like to be able to attract to the event hundreds of thousands, possibly repeating the mythical "the demonstration of 400,000" following the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1982.

Dayan told Haaretz on Thursday that the rally will be organized by a "civilian coalition" that will comprise organizations of bereaved families, reservist soldiers and intellectuals. However, Dayan also invited the heads of some of the opposition parties, including Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, Yossi Beilin of Meretz, as well as Ami Ayalon and Ehud Barak, both challengers of Defense Minister Amir Peretz for the leadership of Labor.

So far, Barak rejected the invitation. Sources close to the former prime ministers said that there is no point to rush with declarations and early commitments.

"We should wait for the committee's conclusions. There is no point to rush ahead," the sources said.

For his part, Netanyahu told Haaretz on Thursday night that he does not discount the possibility that he will address the rally.

Yossi Verter, Jack Khoury and Yuval Yoaz contributed to this report.