Livni to war probe: I voted for one-day IDF operation in Lebanon

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the panel investigating the Second Lebanon War that she believed during a cabinet vote at the war's outset that she was approving an operation that would last one night. The foreign minister made the comments during her testimony to the Winograd Committee in October, excerpts of which were released Sunday.

"As far as I was concerned, on July 12 we embarked on an operation that was supposed to end that night - or the next afternoon at the latest," Livni told the panel.

The foreign minister said that during the July 12 meeting of the special seven-minister forum that made major decisions during the war, she became convinced that a prolonged military operation was not under discussion.

Livni said she approached Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the second day of the war, urging him to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis and to begin discussing the possibility of halting the military operation.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/866418.html

proposal this time round, while using the same words, is being presented as focused on compensation. The words never never demanded only people returning but always left open a compensation approach - and now that side of the words in the Arab proposal is being explored - finally.

Livni seems to have been one of the few principled politicians on the Israeli scene during the entire period of the war.

In that article one of the Winograd Commission members asked her why, if she had trouble getting Olmert to heed her views or even listen to her, didn't she write him a ltr. She replied that she never thought of the idea. That of course, sounds a little strange. But even stranger is the notion that a foreign minister has to write a ltr. to the prime minister just to get his attention. If this isn't an indictment of Olmert's insularity & unwillingness to entertain dissenting views, I don't know what is.

I'm a guy myself, and it's enough to make me take the notion of testosterone poisoning seriously. She doesn't seem to really think outside the box, but she does seem to understand the difference between political expediency and pragmatic effectuality, and to choose the latter with some regularity.

Olmert has seemed, to me, to be way over his head from the day he inherited power.

You don't always get a Truman...

And considering that she comes from a family of pre-1948 Israeli nationalist royalty, she is remarkably pragmatic & devoid of typical nationalist fervor.

Yes, Olmert didn't turn out to be a Truman, but then anyone following his career would've known how he would turn out. Livni gives me some small measure of hope that she might be more pragmatic & more forthright. But I've learned never to allow an Israeli politician to instill too much hope or optimism in me. You're bound to be disappointed if you do.

One of the most important facts to emerge from Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's testimony before the Winograd Committee was that she had urged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to make the Second Lebanon War as short as possible.

It turns out, however, that Livni was not the only one to urge this: On July 16, four days after the war started, the National Security Council recommended in a document that the Israeli offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon be wrapped up as quickly as possible, as most of the possible objectives had already been met.

In retrospect, however, it is evident that no serious discussion was ever held over recommendations to shorten the war.

A similar recommendation was made to Defense Minister Amir Peretz. The person who made it, David Ivri, was a former commander of the air force and director general of the Defense Ministry. However, it is now known that Ivri's recommendation was never raised in the "forum of seven," which included the deputy prime ministers and Minister of Public Security Avi Dichter. The defense minister also failed to present Ivri's proposal to the security cabinet.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/867019.html