Israeli PM says Lebanon war was pre-planned: report

[sanctus]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has testified he launched last year's war against Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon in line with a contingency plan he approved four months before, the Haaretz daily said on Thursday.
Olmert, under fire for his handling of the inconclusive 34-day war, told a judicial inquiry last month that Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 triggered the plans for a large-scale attack in Lebanon, the Israeli newspaper said.
The inquiry, known as the Winograd Commission, is expected to publish an interim report this month. Haaretz did not say how it had learned the details of Olmert's February 1 testimony.
Many Israelis view Olmert's decision to go to war as a knee-jerk reaction by a leader with little security experience, unlike his predecessor, former general Ariel Sharon.
In testimony apparently aimed at dismissing any notion he acted recklessly, Olmert told the commission he asked army commanders in March 2006 if a contingency plan for military action existed in the event soldiers were abducted along the Lebanon frontier, Haaretz said.
Presented with options, Olmert chose what the newspaper described as a "moderate plan" that included air strikes accompanied by a limited ground operation.
Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz have seen their popularity slump since the conflict, in which 158 Israelis, including 117 soldiers and 41 civilians, were killed and thousands of Hezbollah rockets were fired into the Jewish state.
About 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon, including an estimated 270 Hezbollah guerrillas.
Only 3 percent of Israelis would vote for Olmert if elections were held now, according to a poll released by Israel's Channel 10 television on Wednesday. Olmert has also been dogged by political corruption scandals.
In the Lebanon war, Israel failed to achieve its declared goals of retrieving the two soldiers taken in a cross-border raid, and destroying the Iranian- and Syrian-backed group's rocket arsenal and military capacity.
Haaretz said the United States intervened at the outset of the war to curb the strength of Israel's response and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Israel that Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government should not be undermined.
"Israel understood this to mean Lebanese infrastructure should not be destroyed, even though the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) had originally planned otherwise," Haaretz said.
Israeli bombing destroyed scores of bridges in Lebanon and devastated Hezbollah's strongholds in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim suburbs of Beirut and in the south and east of the country.
A U.N.-backed truce halted hostilities on August 14. Since then Hezbollah guerrillas have made way for Lebanese army troops and an expanded U.N. peacekeeping force to deploy in the south. Olmert has cited the deployments as an Israeli gain in the war.


Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited

 

[darkbeaver]

Oh those darling Israelis, what difference will a revelation like this make to confirmed adherants of the extant paradigm, they will only be applauded for thier selfless dedication and preemptive benevolence
in thier tireless struggle for justice blah blah bla etc;:laughing7:

 

[L Gilbert]

".....the conflict, in which 158 Israelis, including 117 soldiers and 41 civilians, were killed and thousands of Hezbollah rockets were fired into the Jewish state........"
Oh, those darling Hizbollah are so innnocent, too.
I would have quit after knocking off twice as many Hizbollah as the Israeli they killed, but that's me thinking in warmonger terms. Olmert doesn't sound like he's too swift nor nice. But then, neither do the Hizbollah.

 

[Colpy]

Oh those darling Israelis, what difference will a revelation like this make to confirmed adherants of the extant paradigm, they will only be applauded for thier selfless dedication and preemptive benevolence
in thier tireless struggle for justice blah blah bla etc;:laughing7:

Ah, excuse me?

You expect, perhaps, Israel's contingency plan in case of attack by genocidal Hezbollah to be for the Israeli people to quietly line up for the gas chambers?

They tried that once, it didn't work out very well.

 

[WilliamAshley]

as opposed to what occupying lebanon?

like didn't sharon do that?

didn't sharon get put on war crimes list for that same thing

(p.s. hear about the isreali use of human sheilds.... thats a new one...)

anyway.. the lebanon thing made no sense to me....

since terrorists in your contry attack us we will destroy your infrastructure and kill a whole bunch of innocents. we havn't done that since the 80s we better keep things fresh, afterall if you start liking us it may get too kushy and we wont get free guns no more.

maybe I just see it the wrong way... it didnt make sense. it was a devestation to the region .. but I geuss the guy had good reasons for doing what he was doing from his perspective.

It plays off as an overreaction in my mind.

The loose edge the israeli's had with their advaned technology was sorta a let down actually .. isreal was suppose to be all bad arse, and their show was rather dismal, amatuer and mindless from my perspective. They real sad story here is that most lebanese casualties were non combatants, in a sense of war, that demonstrates a very unprofessional stance. It doesn't play off as good traits whatsoever. The direct message is not all that is left and being a puppet to meaning is not meaningful except in doing what you choose to communicate and find to be fitting of communicating. If you follow, but it wasn't a good message.

Defending yourself is one thing but killing a whole bunch of innocent people is another. No long term benifit was acheived in my mind from what occured, maybe I don't see it, but it plays off in my mind as a practice of self destruction.

Not necisarily on physical grounds, but moral grounds.

 

[Doryman]

Every country in the world has a plan on how to fight any other country within their geo-political sphere. It's how you train military officers to plan wars, you make them plan wars that you will not go through with. Then you file the plans away and when you find yourself in a war, yoink!, haul out the plan and go nuts.


Not a big deal people.

 

[darkbeaver]

Ah, excuse me?

You expect, perhaps, Israel's contingency plan in case of attack by genocidal Hezbollah to be for the Israeli people to quietly line up for the gas chambers?

They tried that once, it didn't work out very well.

There are no outstanding warrents for any crime issued for members of Hezbowlah. Israelis have never been subjected to chemical weapons chambers of any kind. They who? You are excused, about face, forward march.

 

[darkbeaver]

".....the conflict, in which 158 Israelis, including 117 soldiers and 41 civilians, were killed and thousands of Hezbollah rockets were fired into the Jewish state........"
Oh, those darling Hizbollah are so innnocent, too.
I would have quit after knocking off twice as many Hizbollah as the Israeli they killed, but that's me thinking in warmonger terms. Olmert doesn't sound like he's too swift nor nice. But then, neither do the Hizbollah.

You would have quit after knocking,off twice as many Hizbollah. Am I to understand you to be a fifty foot high iron man able to outdo the IDF in murder and diestruction in a fraction of the time. The IDF retired because they we,re beaten soundly by a rebellious rabble of superior artists.

 

[darkbeaver]

Every country in the world has a plan on how to fight any other country within their geo-political sphere. It's how you train military officers to plan wars, you make them plan wars that you will not go through with. Then you file the plans away and when you find yourself in a war, yoink!, haul out the plan and go nuts.


Not a big deal people.

That,s management planning not the war itself.You might review the Iraqis conflict with a view to the appauling planning involved and consider that planning is only part of the job, sanity is probubly important as well. The nuts part they can provide in bulk.