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

By Jeffrey Heller

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.