“It seems that the prime minister and Nasrallah are getting their stories straight,” an outraged MK Effie Eitam told Ynet Thursday on Olmert’s statement that the second Lebanon war was planned beforehand.
All throughout the war and afterwards, Hizbullah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah defended himself from public criticism by claiming that Israel had already been planning the war and that it “jumped at the chance” to strike.
According to Haaretz, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Winograd Commission that a military operation in case of a kidnapping incident along the Lebanese border was planned as early as March, 2006, four months prior to war.
Several MKs criticized Olmert’s statement, which they said backs up Nasrallah’s repeated claims, and could jeopardize Israel ‘s credibility.
Much as I hate to defend Olmert, I need to make the point again — as I did in the case of the ‘plan’ to bomb Iran — that military contingency plans are not the same as the government deciding to do something.
All of those generals have to have something to do during peacetime, and it consists of making “what if” types of plans. There is no evidence that the government made a decision to go to war in advance of the kidnapping of the soldiers and the accompanying rocket attack.
Indeed, judging by the conduct of the war, it’s hard to believe that advance planning of any kind was done.
