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"Israel's Peres opposed to starting Lebanon war"

Israeli deputy prime minister Shimon Peres said that he opposed starting the conflict that took place in Lebanon this summer. This statement was made in a hearing investigation into last summer's war with Lebanon. "If it had been up to me," Peres said, "I would not have gone to war. If it had been up to me, I would not have made a list of objectives for this war... We were attacked and we had to defend ourselves. That's all." The testimony, given by Peres on November 7 were made public by the investigating commission, which is expected to release its findings in mid April. Along with Peres, some 70 poiticians and military leaders (including PM Olmert, defense minister Amir Peretz and former chief os staff Dan Halutz--who resigned after this summer's battle) appeared before the commission as well. The commission to investigate the Lebanon war was born out of pressure from "thousands of military reservists who demanded a full-scale inquiry into the conflict," the article says. The war went from July 12 through August 14, ended by a UN brokered ceasefire. It was launched by Israel against Shiite Hezbollah militants in Lebanon after the capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. The conflict has come to be known as "The Second Lebanon War", the first being in 1982 when Israel launched an operation codenames "Peace in Galilee".

Being that the issue in question is so far back, it is hard to place judgement on Peres now for this statement. Had Peres publicized this view last summer while the war was going on or right after, he would have received a lot more attention than he is now, when the commission report is about to come out. Still though, Peres, while holding a great amount of prestige in the Israeli parliament, is not the one who gets to decide whether or not the country goes to war. Saying he didn't support the military action in Lebanon 8 months after the fact really doesn't matter anymore. His opinion doesn't change what happened, and is not wholly unpopular either.