Netanyahu to Winograd panel: Decision to enter war was hasty - Haaretz

Subscribe to Print Edition

Wed., September 12, 2007 Elul 29, 5767

Israel Time: 03:55 (EST+7)

web haaretz.com

Back to Homepage

Print Edition

Diplomacy

Defense

Arts & Leisure

Real Estate

Jewish World

National

Advertising

Magazine

Week's End

Business

Opinion

Rosner's Domain

Anglo File

Books

Travel



		Benjamin Netanyahu. (Archives)

del.icio.us

Digg It! new

Last update - 16:54 09/09/2007

Netanyahu to Winograd panel: Decision to enter war was hasty

By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent

Likud Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu told the Winograd war inquiry commission that the decision to enter the Second Lebanon War was extremely hasty, a report published Sunday revealed.

The opposition leader also told the panel, which is charged with investigating political and military failures during the war, that he had been surprised that the Israel Defense Forces hadn't mobilized any reserve units at its onset on July 12.

Netanyahu said that he had met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the first day of the war and asked him whether reserve units had already been mobilized. Olmert answered in the negative, and it took more than a week for a wide call-up of reservists to begin.

	Advertisement

"Olmert was immersed in the war, military secretary Gadi Shamni came in, there were telephones ringing, and it wasn't a very long conversation... I asked him what was next, but didn't get a clear answer," Netanyahu told the war commission.

The former prime minister added that he had presumed that air raids - on which the Israel Defense Forces relied to fight Hezbollah at the start of the war - could not effectively tackle missile fire from southern Lebanon. Netanyahu insisted that he held this view during his premiership in the 1990s.

He submitted to the panel a government paper, dating from February 1999, which said that "the prime minister's opinion is that containing Katyusha fire from the air is virtually impossible."

However, he said that when the Second Lebanon War broke he thought that "the moment holds great opportunities," but did not elaborate further.

Netanyahu said that during his premiership between 1996 and 1999, despite opposition from the security establishment, he promoted the formation of an advisory panel (the National Security Council), but left office before the process was complete. Netanyahu said that Ehud Barak, his successor, was to blame for bringing the panel's formation to a halt.

The Likud chair dubbed Barak's decision to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000 as "highly problematic." He said that "the way it was carried out was perceived as giving in to terror" and "the symbolic and defining moment, Nasrallah's speech by the fence - in which the Hezbollah leader likened Israel to a cobweb - was a breach of the deterrence effect I wanted to create."

Netanyahu said that he saw a link between "the hasty withdrawal from Lebanon and the eruption of the Intifada, because the former proved, whether correctly or not, that Israel runs away from terror, and that it can be driven away from other fronts by terror."

Bookmark to del.icio.us


	Purring with humanity
	A non-profit organization has set up a shelter housing some 700 cats in Latrun.


	Bicycling Tel Aviv
	Tel Aviv will soon join the list of cities that offer bicycle rentals at a nominal cost.




1.	It`s always easier to drive from the back seat	17:16	\|	Natallie Durson	09/09/07

2.	Netanyahu needs to be PM and says it like it is	17:30	\|	Shepherd	09/09/07

3.	NETANYAHU	17:42	\|	Robbie	09/09/07

4.	#3, Robbie...	20:14	\|	Silvienne	10/09/07

5.	Israelies Prefer Delusion Over Truth	07:40	\|	Tod Zuckerman	11/09/07

Today Online


	IDF officers say Zikkim training base is adequately fortified
	Responses: 757


	CNN: Israel is 'happy with success' of strike on Syria
	Responses: 410


	Amos Harel: No major IDF response to Qassam strike due to tensions in north
	Responses: 100


	Yishai: Shas will quit gov't if Temple Mount is relinquished
	Responses: 90


	Haaretz.com TV: Victims of terror go hungry for holiday
	Responses: 15

Rosner's Domain

* The next year: Nuclear crunch time

* Obama on Walt-Mearsheimer: "just wrong" + some Lobby news

* WTR: The Nazi roots of the 9/11 attack

* Rosner's Guest: Judaism will not end... Judaism as we know it will

More Headlines
03:26 CNN: Israel targeted arms destined for Hezbollah


03:24 ANALYSIS: Strike in Syria / The secret that cannot be kept


23:46 IDF officers say Zikkim training base is adequately fortified


02:32 IDF ground operation in Gaza unlikely despite Zikkim attack


22:40 PMO denies existence of draft Agreement of Principles with PA


19:13 Peace Now asks High Court to order immediate eviction of Hebron squatters


22:47 Thousands more survivors to receive stipend from Germany


22:41 Livni: Hamas could have prevented Qassam attack on IDF base


22:51 Polish court sentences neo-Nazi to 18 months in jail for anti-Semitic assault