Peretz says Israel ignored events in Lebanon 'too long'

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni sits by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Wednesday's cabinet meeting.

 

Israel ignored events in Lebanon for too long, and the Second Lebanon War was meant to break that policy and restore Israel's power of deterrence, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday at a memorial ceremony for soldiers who fell during the War for Peace in the Galilee.

Peretz said that it was possible to find fault with Israel's extended presence in Lebanon and its hasty withdrawal, but not with the soldiers' heroism.

Earlier, the testimony of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to the Winograd Committee was released, in which she said that an immediate diplomatic solution to the crisis with Hizbullah last summer was preferable.

Livni described how, on July 13, one day before the military operation erupted into an all-out war, she attempted to move the government onto a diplomatic track.

"On Thursday I asked [Prime Minister Ehud Olmert] why this was continuing," Livni said. "I said to the prime minister that I think that the diplomatic issue needed to be advanced."

The second Lebanon war: JPost.com special report

In addition, Livni told how she did not expect any military action to last more than one day.

"On the 12th of July, I thought it was an operation, which was supposed to end that same night - at most the next afternoon," she told the committee, which was charged with investigating Israel's actions during the Second War in Lebanon. "It was clear from the beginning that the action would not end that same night. There was no stopping point, no goal for military victory."

The foreign minister also described the escalating tensions between her and the prime minister. She recalled how Olmert, during a security cabinet meeting centered around discussing the widening military operation, ignored her suggestions, and how her relationship with the prime minister suffered as a result.

"During the meeting, I was at a point where I felt I was barely being heard," Livni said. "When I began to speak, the prime minister would suddenly start speaking to the chief of general staff or somebody, and I stopped what I was saying."

The prime minister, Livni said, told her to continue. When she asked Olmert to listen to what she was saying, the prime minister responded by saying he was listening "to every word, and even to every vibration."

Livni pointed out several times throughout her testimony how she tried to push for acceptance of her policy, and described how it was ignored. "The military operation cannot return the soldiers. It can pulverize Hizbullah, but at a certain point there won't be high-quality targets and there will be no hope for the operation," the foreign minister told the committee.

"Therefore the timing is crucial, right now the operation is a military one, but its end will be a diplomatic one."

Livni explained that the situation would be problematic for a prolonged period of time. "The Foreign Ministry has not been taken advantage of, especially since the Yom Kippur War," Livni argued.

"Information I gave during debriefings [at Cabinet meetings] was my own input, but a professional [in the matter] never came. And I am telling you - during the war I asked the head of the Political Research Department to come [to the meetings], only so that he could present a different point of view.

Regarding difficulties she encountered in the field of public relations, Livni said: "I received a letter from our ambassador in Holland, who said to me 'Do me a favor… The army released two photographs that I simply cannot handle. One which apparently showed - I did not see it myself - an Israeli girl signing a missile destined to be sent to [Hizbullah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, or something like that.'

'This is something that people probably enjoyed in Israel, because our soldiers are our children, but this is perceived as the participation of children in the war.'" Livni recalled.

The ambassador also mentioned a second photograph, which he said "could be looked upon in Israel as something pleasant, during which Chabad members arrived [at the northern border]. Overseas, the picture was seen as a war of religion.'"

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Magal
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