Taken from Haaretz Israeli Newspaper:

"Last update - 15:50 23/03/2007 Member of war probe: Restraint eroded IDF deterrence By Nir Hasson and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents

The Winograd Committee investigating the Second Lebanon War released on Thursday the transcripts of three testimonies heard by the panel. In one of them, a member of the committee, Major General (res.) Menahem Einan, notes that Israel's policy of restraint along the northern border in the years before the war contributed to the erosion of Israel's deterrent against Hezbollah.

In another of the testimonies, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said he would not have embarked on the war in Lebanon last July if he were in charge.

The committee released to the public segments of transcripts of three of the first testimonies it heard, which also include those of former Military Intelligence chief Amos Malka, and Arnon Ben-Ami, head of the Emergency Economy Administration.

The committee is also planning to release next week segments of the transcripts of the testimony of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and wartime chief of staff Dan Halutz.


During the testimony of Malka, Einan asked him about Israel's policy of restraint in the North, the pullout from southern Lebanon in May 2000 and the period up to the abduction of the two soldiers and the outbreak of war in July 2006.

Einan argued that the abduction of three soldiers at Har Dov in October 2000 was a "crossing of a line."

"Between that time and up to the abduction on July 12 there were more such incidents, and again, the IDF reaction was limited, and almost became an idee fixe. I will call it a worldview, or a policy that is called 'containment' in military terminology," Einan said.

He blamed this on the loss of deterrent and said the "rules of the game" that Israel established in the North favored Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah "