MK Tzachi Hanegbi
Photo: Dudi Vaaknin
Winograd Commission submitting report
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Hanegbi to Winograd: War ended with achievements
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman tells inquiry committee war could have ended much worse, deployment of international forces at border a significant achievement
Israel reached a significant achievement by the end of the Second Lebanon War, MK Tzachi Hanegbi, chairman of Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee told the Winograd Commission. Hanegbi's testimony to the commission investigating the failures of the Second Lebanon War was made public on Tuesday.
"The decision to go to war was made since there was no way to stop the Katyusha attacks other than a long-term ground operation…
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"What stopped this operation was resolution 1701, which surreally (turned the war) into the first battle in the history of the State of Israel – perhaps excluding the War of Independence – that brought at its end an obvious achievement, a political achievement," Hanegbi said.
According to Hanegbi, by the end of the war Israel had achieved the deployment of the Lebanese army and a multinational force at its border, and the weakening of Hizbullah.
"It didn’t disappear, it is in the area," Hanegbi said, speaking of the organization headed by Hassan Nasrallah, "but the absolute sovereign power it enjoyed up until July 12 was weakened, thus creating potential that over time, threats from the northern border will weaken.
"I think there was a miracle," Hanegbi told the commission members, explaining that the war was an early warning sign of something that could have ended much worse.
"We paid a heavy price, a price that is very haevy to each and every one of us and to the families, but it was still not a price on the strategic national level… I believe that very significant things will take a turn for the best."
