Hizbullah says Peres` remarks on war amount to `declaration of defeat`

Source: Daily Star, 24-3-2007
BEIRUT: Hizbullah said on Friday that an admission by the "Israeli" vice premier that the summer 2006 war with Lebanon was a mistake was as "good as a declaration of defeat." Speaking to The Daily Star, a spokesperson for the group said "the oppressive force does not confess to committing a mistake unless it has lost a war."
Hussein Rahal added that "it was a late confession by a man who considered that the [2006 summer] war was a matter of life and death and who was one of the decision makers to launch a war against Lebanon and kill the Lebanese - a man who was also responsible for the Qana massacre in 1996."
Shimon Peres told a panel investigating the government`s handling of last year`s war in Lebanon that "Israel`s" decision to invade was a mistake and the military was unprepared, according to testimony made public. Peres also said Hizbullah did a better job of handling media coverage than the "Israelis" did.
"The greatest mistake is the very fact of war," Peres told the Winograd Commission. "If it had been up to me, I would not have gone into this war."
The 15-page transcript of his appearance before the commission last November has large swathes deleted by "Israel`s" military censors on security grounds, but nevertheless provides insights into Peres` thinking. The transcript was released on Thursday.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appointed the commission, headed by a retired judge, under intense pressure from a dissatisfied public because of the inconclusive war.
Peres told the commission that Hizbullah had been more effective than "Israel" in the battle for favorable media coverage of the month-long conflict, finding an effective spokesman in its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. "Hizbullah united around a spokesman of no little talent - Nasrallah," Peres said. "We relentlessly attacked one another. One person blamed the other and the net effect was negative."
Peres, 83, told the five-member panel of jurists and retired generals, however, that he kept his misgivings about sending the army into Lebanon to himself for fear that arguing against it in Cabinet meetings would leak out and damage the public perception of ministerial unity.
"Israel`s" military failed to achieve the war`s stated aims: crippling Hizbullah and obtaining the two captured soldiers. Peres however, refused to lay blame, offering only that the military "was not prepared for this war" and its inconclusive outcome harmed "Israel`s" deterrent posture in the eyes of the Arab world.
"We are perceived today as weaker than we were before," he said. Peres said the war was neither a success nor a failure, but he said the government was wrong to publicly prioritize the return of the soldiers, captured by Hizbullah on July 12.
"If you say your primary objective is to free the abducted [soldiers], you in practice put yourself at the mercy of the enemy," Peres told the panel. "Why would you say that?"
Rahal said: "Let them learn a lesson in order not to launch another attack against Lebanon because they will pay a high price. All those who decided to launch a war against Lebanon will pay the price. Olmert will also pay the price."
On March 9, Nasrallah, referring to Olmert`s remarks that the war in Lebanon was planned "months" in advance, said "the truth came out from the mouth of our enemy."
Nasrallah also predicted that "more truth will be exposed in due time."