Israel Slows Its Military’s Advance In Lebanon

The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has blocked Israel’s military from conducting a ground war in Lebanon

Officials as well as several Cabinet ministers have acknowledged that Olmert and his allies prevented the General Staff from conducting a rapid conquest of southern Lebanon in an attempt to destroy Hizbullah and halt its rocket fire. They said the government — fearing both international condemnation as well as a domestic backlash — pursued a policy of announcing major military operations and then suspending them because of international efforts to reach a ceasefire.

“We shouldn’t rush to war when we see the heavy price it is costing, whether it is soldiers in the rear or citizens sitting in shelters for a month,” Vice Premier Shimon Peres, who opposed or abstained in the Cabinet decisions, said.

The Cabinet approved several resolutions that called for an expansion of the war. On August 9, a ministerial committee voted 9-0 with three abstentions for a military advance to the Litani River, about 20 kilometers north of the Israeli border. The operation was designed to include 40,000 reserve soldiers.

Officials said that within hours of the advance, entitled Operation Change of Direction, Defense Minister Amir Peretz telephoned Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz and ordered a withdrawal of a division that was within sight of the Litani. Peretz cited U.S. pressure.

“In war, there is a price,” Halutz said on Thursday. “We have to clarify in no uncertain manner that when Israel defends its house, it defends its house — that we don’t go backwards, but forward.”

Still, by Friday, the government appeared to have abandoned the offensive and instead waited for the United Nations Security Council to pass a ceasefire resolution. The proposed French-U.S. resolution, despite Israeli objections, was said to retain Hizbullah’s military capability and maintain UN responsibility for the Israeli-Lebanese border.

“Today, it is perfectly clear that the [August 9] Cabinet decision was not meant for one second for a military operation, rather to create pressure to achieve a better [ceasefire] draft,” former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, a member of the opposition Likud Party, said. “This is one of the worst ceasefire drafts ever accepted by Israel and will be mourned by generations.”

Officials and military sources agreed that from the start Olmert, Peretz and most of the Cabinet relied on the international community rather than the military to halt Hizbullah rocket fire. They said the prime minister and defense minister dismissed Northern Command’s plan for a rapid ground advance to the Litani, sealing of enemy supply routes and destruction of Hizbullah strongholds.

Instead, Olmert and Peretz ordered air strikes against suspected Hizbullah targets. Two weeks later, Hizbullah continued to fire rockets from Shi’ite villages within a kilometer of Israel.

“There is no mistake Ehud Olmert did not make this past month,” Ari Shavit, a leading columnist, wrote in a front page analysis in the Israeli daily Haaretz on Friday. “He went to war hastily, without properly gauging the outcome. He blindly followed the military without asking the necessary questions. He mistakenly gambled on air operations, was strangely late with the ground operation, and failed to implement the army’s original plan, much more daring and sophisticated than that which was implemented.”

At the same time, senior ministers bickered over tactics and strategy. Cabinet sources reported disputes between Olmert and Peretz, Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Peretz and his predecessor, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz.

During the six-hour Cabinet meeting on August 9, Mofaz presented a plan to capture the Litani River. From the Litani, Israeli ground forces would then surround and destroy Hizbullah strongholds.

“You can get there in 48 hours and say we won, and south Lebanon is surrounded,” Mofaz, a former military chief of staff, was quoted by the Israeli media as saying. “If you want, clean the area from south to north.”

Peretz, who entered his post without military or Cabinet experience, responded angrily. “Why didn’t you do anything when you were chief of staff and defense minister?” Peretz asked. “Where were you when Hizbullah created this deployment?”

During the same meeting, Halutz, himself under severe criticism for the heavy casualties sustained by the military, proposed air strikes against Lebanese power stations and other civilian infrastructure. Peretz cut him off, saying this was not included in the defense minister’s plan.

During a recess, Cabinet sources said, Olmert discussed the prospect of a ceasefire with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Later, the prime minister met Peretz and Ms. Livni and pledged to suspend any Cabinet decision to expand the ground war in Lebanon. The sources said virtually every minister in attendance knew the war proposal up for a vote would not be implemented.

“I don’t think you can stop the firing of rockets,” Housing Minister Meir Shetreet said. “You can’t win this war by a knockout, only through points. The diplomatic clock is ticking and there’s no point in putting in so many troops when we can’t finish the operation.”

Officials also reported disputes within the military and intelligence community. They included Halutz and Northern Command head Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, as well as military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin and Mossad director Meir Amit.

On August 9, Halutz ordered his deputy, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski, to move to Northern Command to oversee the war in Lebanon. Halutz’s order came amid increasing tension between the chief of staff and Adam, whose appeals to widen the ground assault were dismissed.

Military sources report widespread equipment shortages as well as the deployment of untrained reservists in Lebanon. They said reserve units have been operating without armored or air support and came under numerous instances of friendly fire.

“Commanders do not have clear orders of the operation and lack situational awareness,” a military source said. “Instead, they have specific missions. They go from one place to another, leaving villages and areas to be reoccupied by Hizbullah.”

Cabinet sources said Olmert and most of his ministers — many of them in power for the first time — have been haunted by the prospect that the war would damage their political careers. They said these ministers, elected on a platform of unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, regard the ground operation as a sop to the 1.5 million Israelis who have come under daily rocket fire since the war began on July 12.

“Look, there is a very complex reality now,” Science Minister Opher Pinas said. “On one hand, there is a risk, and there is a fear of a massive broad incursion into Lebanon. We have been through things of this sort. We have paid the price in the past