Israel's Peres says wouldn't have entered Lebanon war

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Deputy Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, in testimony to a Lebanon war inquiry released on Thursday, said he would not have entered last year's war if the decision had rested with him.

The government-appointed Winograd commission is examining how Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, his cabinet and the military brass handled the inconclusive war that Israel fought against Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas last year.

The release of the commission's interim findings could determine Olmert's political future. Many Israelis see the war as a failure and say Olmert's objectives were never met.

"If it were up to me, I would not have entered into this war. If it was also up to me, I would not have made a list of objectives for the war... We were attacked and we needed to repel the attack. That is it," Peres said in testimony last year to the commission.

Peres, a former prime minister and defense minister, added: "I thought that the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) was not prepared for this war."

Excerpts of his testimony were released by the panel.

The inquiry board plans to issue its interim report in the second half of April, largely focusing on the decision to go to war after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a border raid on July 12.

Officials said on Thursday that the Winograd investigative commission would publish no later than April 2 a transcript from Olmert's closed-door appearance.

Transcripts of testimony by Defense Minister Amir Peretz and the former chief of staff of the armed forces, Dan Halutz, who resigned over the military's shortcomings in the conflict, will be published along with Olmert's, the officials said.

The decision follows a court ruling in favor of a petition by a left-wing legislator to order the commission to publish testimony from Olmert, Peretz and Halutz.

Military censors may make deletions before the testimony is released, the officials added.

CONSEQUENCES

The preliminary findings, the commission said, would "draw conclusions" relating to Olmert, Peretz and Halutz, raising speculation in Israel the report could prove politically fatal to the prime minister and his defense chief.

Olmert, Peretz and the military top brass have seen their popularity plummet after Israel failed to crush Hezbollah in the campaign that ended in a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in August.

In an interview broadcast on Thursday by the BBC, John Bolton, who was the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. during the Lebanon war, said Washington had delayed calling for a ceasefire so that Israel would have more time to try to defeat Hezbollah.

"What was wrong with that?" Bolton told BBC Radio 4.

He said Israel had acted in self-defense, "and if (that) meant the defeat of the enemy, that was perfectly legitimate under international law, and frankly, under good politics".

Asked if the United States deliberately frustrated diplomatic attempts to end the fighting during what became the final two weeks of the war, Bolton replied: "I was damn proud of what we did."

Olmert has said the war succeeded in driving the movement's fighters away from the Israeli border.

In a speech last week, Olmert called himself "an unpopular prime minister", citing recent poor showings in opinion polls.

One survey this month found that just 3 percent of Israelis would vote to re-elect the centrist Kadima party leader him if a ballot were held now.

Israel's next general election is scheduled for 2010.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul)