Barak defends Lebanon withdrawal in 2000
Defense minister testifies before Winograd Commission on years leading up to Israel's pullout from Lebanon. On Second Lebanon War he says, 'We should have struck hard and said that unless these two boys are returned within six weeks, Israel will act at its own discretion'
Defense Minister Ehud Barak is convinced that the IDF's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 – which he presided over as prime minister - was the only right move for Israel.
In his testimony before the Winograd Commission as part of the investigation into the failings of the Second Lebanon War, Barak criticized the wartime defense minister, Amir Peretz.
"The situation in Lebanon was leading nowhere. In the year before my premiership there must have been more than 100 Israelis killed, and that includes the accident in which more than 70 boys were killed (the 1997 helicopter disaster)," said Barak in his testimony, which was released to the public on Monday.
"To me, the internal contradiction of the security zone was that its purpose was to provide defense for the residents of the north – but by prolonging our stay there, it became the problem rather than the solution," he said.
Barak also spoke of the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers Adi Avitan, Benyamin Avraham and Omar Sawaid in October 2000. "In the weeks leading up to the kidnapping… I instructed the general staff several times… to prepare for the possibility of a kidnapping. It was made clear in earlier security assessments that the Shebaa farms is a volatile region.
"I estimated that they would not dare act because of the resolute lack of legitimacy; that they would not cross the border into Israel and into the townships in places where the international border was set and we withdrew to it."
Barak arriving at the Winograd hearings, November 2006 (Photo: Niv Calderon)
Regarding Hizbullah's claim that the Shebaa farms is Lebanese territory being occupied by Israel, Barak said that the land was unquestionably Syrian: "It was clear that the Shebaa farms do not fall under that category – we're there, it allows them to keep claiming that something about it (the withdrawal) is not complete.
"But regardless of that, the kidnapping itself was a shameful operational failure on our part. It wasn't something that had to happen, certainly not with the alerts we had and the level of preparedness that should have been realized, all the way to the ground troops."
Barak also addressed tactical issues pertaining to the Second Lebanon War. The objective of a war is to win, he said, and laid out the choices he would have made had he been part of the government during the war.
"Strike hard, and then say: "Unless these two boys are returned within six weeks, Israel will act at its own discretion. And now you take those six weeks and you use them to prepare the orchestra to play the piece you want it to perform with… that's something you need to prepare for."
