Israel’s foreign minister told a commission of inquiry that she knew last year’s Lebanon offensive would not bring victory. In a censored version of Tzipi Livni’s testimony to the Winograd Commission published Sunday, Livni said that when she approved going to war against Hezbollah on July 12, she thought it would be a brief operation followed by negotiations. “It was clear to me from the outset that this operation would not end that is, that there would be no point of military victory,” she said. By July 13, Livni said, it was clear that Israel should “lower the intensity and start seeking a diplomatic way out that would provide maximum yield.” Livni and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have clashed recently over the Winograd report, which found that the handling of the war by Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz was faulty.
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