Peretz: Israel surprised by Lebanese resistance force
Lebanon-Israel, Politics, 8/18/2006

Under fire for unleashing full-scale war on Lebanon for almost five weeks, Israel's defense minister Amir Peretz admitted that Israel had underestimated Lebanese resistance forces, Israeli newspaper said on Thursday.

According to Haaretz, as public criticism of the war's handling mounted, the occupying regime's defense minister admitted that Israeli top military officers did not have accurate information about Lebanese resistance forces before getting involved in aggression on Lebanon on July 12.

Hizbullah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at Israel during 34 days of fighting, including several medium-range missiles that for the first time hit Israel's third-largest city, Haifa. A truce Monday ended the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Some 39 civilians and 118 soldiers were killed in the attacks, with tank battalions being among the most vulnerable military targets.

Israeli officials said the military command decided earlier this year, for budgetary reasons, to halt development of advanced systems that would have protected tanks against missiles.

After Lebanese resistance force's antitank missiles killed dozens of Israeli soldiers, Israeli army decided to develop and install the systems, it said.

With the truce in fighting, the unity that held the Israeli public together during the war has shattered. Military commanders and armchair generals alike have begun questioning key decisions taken by Israel's wartime leaders, Haaretz said.

The terms of the truce, a heavy reliance on air strikes in the early phase of the war, and a massive ground offensive ordered as the cease-fire deal seemed imminent have all stirred controversy.

According to the daily, Peretz, has drawn more fire than prime minister Ehud Olmert and military chief Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz.

Peretz is the only one of the three whom a majority of the public wants out, according to a poll earlier this week by the Dahaf Research Institute, it said.

But Olmert was reluctant to turn over the nation's purse strings to the populist Peretz, who had sought the finance ministry. Instead, he tapped him to head defense, and many think Peretz has gotten in over his head.

"The appointment of Amir Peretz as defense minister was a crazy idea," political commentator Nahum Barnea wrote on the front page of the Yediot Ahronot newspaper yesterday, calling on him to resign.

Peretz, meanwhile, has appointed former military chief Amnon Lipkin-Shahak to review the handling of the war it said.

Previous Stories:
  Rice said Hizbullah needs to disarm or face international pressure   (8/16/2006)
  Lebanon: UN emergency aid distributed in Tyre, fuel supplied to hospitals   (8/16/2006)
  Lebanon orders army to move south   (8/16/2006)

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