Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter
Photo: Ronen Boydek
Dichter: Peace possible without war
Internal security minister’s testimony at Winograd Commission published, said Israel should not have bombed Beirut
Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter’s testimony at the Winograd Commission was published Sunday afternoon.
The minister said that he would not have decided to go to war had he known what its outcome would be. He also said that it was possible to achieve peace without war, just as Israel did with Jordan.
“That shows there is more than one option for peace in the Middle East,” Dichter said.
The internal security minister admitted in his testimony that he wasn’t sure the military had a clear picture of the war when it first began. “We have to remember that the first week didn’t provide any hints as to how this operation was expected to develop,” he said.
Dichter also commented on the decision to attack the southern Beirut neighborhood of Dahiya two days into the war. “That is certainly the day we influenced the war, and the pace at which it escalated. In my opinion, we shouldn’t have done it,” he said.
“At that stage, the first Friday, I felt that most of our pressure, the majority of operations, should have focused on the place from which the threat originated, and not on attacking real estate in Beirut.”
Speaking of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Dichter said, “The price and what we went through to reach this achievement, obligates us to examine (the situation), and that is what the commission was established for.”
