JERUSALEM — The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert blocked
Israel's military from conducting a ground war in Lebanon.
Officials as well as several Cabinet ministers have acknowledged that
Olmert and his allies prevented the General Staff from conducting a rapid
conquest of southern Lebanon in an attempt to destroy Hizbullah and halt its
rocket fire. They said the government — fearing both international
condemnation as well as a domestic backlash — pursued a policy of
announcing major military operations and then suspending them because of
international efforts to reach a ceasefire.
"We shouldn't rush to war when we see the heavy price it is costing,
whether it is soldiers in the rear or citizens sitting in shelters for a
month," Vice Premier Shimon Peres, who opposed or abstained in the Cabinet
decisions, said.
The Cabinet approved several resolutions that called for an expansion of
the war, Middle East Newsline reported. On Aug. 9, a ministerial committee voted 9-0 with three abstentions
for a military advance to the Litani River, about 20 kilometers north of the
Israeli border. The operation was designed to include 40,000 reserve
soldiers.
Officials said that within hours of the advance, entitled Operation
Change of Direction, Defense Minister Amir Peretz telephoned Chief of Staff
Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz and ordered a withdrawal of a division that was within
sight of the Litani. Peretz cited U.S. pressure.
"In war, there is a price," Halutz said on Thursday. "We have to clarify
in no uncertain manner that when Israel defends its house, it defends its
house — that we don't go backwards, but forward."
Still, by Friday, the government appeared to have abandoned the
offensive and instead waited for the United Nations Security Council to pass
a ceasefire resolution. The proposed French-U.S. resolution, despite Israeli
objections, was said to retain Hizbullah's military capability and maintain
UN responsibility for the Israeli-Lebanese border.
"Today, it is perfectly clear that the [Aug. 9] Cabinet decision was not
meant for one second for a military operation, rather to create pressure to
achieve a better [ceasefire] draft," former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom,
a member of the opposition Likud Party, said. "This is one of the worst
ceasefire drafts ever accepted by Israel and will be mourned by
generations."
Officials and military sources agreed that from the start Olmert, Peretz
and most of the Cabinet relied on the international community rather than
the military to halt Hizbullah rocket fire. They said the prime minister and
defense minister dismissed Northern Command's plan for a rapid ground
advance to the Litani, sealing of enemy supply routes and destruction of
Hizbullah strongholds.
Instead, Olmert and Peretz ordered air strikes against suspected
Hizbullah targets. Two weeks later, Hizbullah continued to fire rockets from
Shi'ite villages within a kilometer of Israel.
"There is no mistake Ehud Olmert did not make this past month," Ari
Shavit, a leading columnist, wrote in a front page analysis in the Israeli
daily Haaretz on Friday. "He went to war hastily, without properly gauging
the outcome. He blindly followed the military without asking the necessary
questions. He mistakenly gambled on air operations, was strangely late with
the ground operation, and failed to implement the army's original plan, much
more daring and sophisticated than that which was implemented."
At the same time, senior ministers bickered over tactics and strategy.
Cabinet sources reported disputes between Olmert and Peretz, Olmert and
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Peretz and his predecessor, Transportation
Minister Shaul Mofaz.
During the six-hour Cabinet meeting on Aug. 9, Mofaz presented a plan to
capture the Litani River. From the Litani, Israeli ground forces would then
surround and destroy Hizbullah strongholds.
"You can get there in 48 hours and say we won, and south Lebanon is
surrounded," Mofaz, a former military chief of staff, was quoted by the
Israeli media as saying. "If you want, clean the area from south to north."
Peretz, who entered his post without military or Cabinet experience,
responded angrily. "Why didn't you do anything when you were chief of staff
and defense minister?" Peretz asked. "Where were you when Hizbullah created
this deployment?"
During the same meeting, Halutz, himself under severe criticism for the
heavy casualties sustained by the military, proposed air strikes against
Lebanese power stations and other civilian infrastructure. Peretz cut him
off, saying this was not included in the defense minister's plan.
During a recess, Cabinet sources said, Olmert discussed the prospect of
a ceasefire with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Later, the prime
minister met Peretz and Ms. Livni and pledged to suspend any Cabinet
decision to expand the ground war in Lebanon. The sources said virtually
every minister in attendance knew the war proposal up for a vote would not
be implemented.
"I don't think you can stop the firing of rockets," Housing Minister
Meir Shetreet said. "You can't win this war by a knockout, only through
points. The diplomatic clock is ticking and there's no point in putting in
so many troops when we can't finish the operation."
Officials also reported disputes within the military and intelligence
community. They included Halutz and Northern Command head Maj. Gen. Udi
Adam, as well as military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin and
Mossad director Meir Amit.
On Aug. 9, Halutz ordered his deputy, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski, to move
to Northern Command to oversee the war in Lebanon. Halutz's order came amid
increasing tension between the chief of staff and Adam, whose appeals to
widen the ground assault were dismissed.
Military sources report widespread equipment shortages as well as the
deployment of untrained reservists in Lebanon. They said reserve units have
been operating without armored or air support and came under numerous
instances of friendly fire.
"Commanders do not have clear orders of the operation and lack
situational awareness," a military source said. "Instead, they have specific
missions. They go from one place to another, leaving villages and areas to
be reoccupied by Hizbullah."
Cabinet sources said Olmert and most of his ministers — many of them in
power for the first time — have been haunted by the prospect that the war
would damage their political careers. They said these ministers, elected on
a platform of unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, regard the
ground operation as a sop to the 1.5 million Israelis who have come under
daily rocket fire since the war began on July 12.
"Look, there is a very complex reality now," Science Minister Opher
Pinas said. "On one hand, there is a risk, and there is a fear of a massive
broad incursion into Lebanon. We have been through things of this sort. We
have paid the price in the past."