Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told an investigative panel that the Israeli military ''seriously let itself down'' in last summer's war in Lebanon, according to censored minutes of his testimony published on Thursday.
But Olmert tried to deflect the commission's suggestions that he acted rashly and on the basis of sketchy information.
The 89 pages of testimony were published 10 days after the commission issued a critical report of his handling of the initial stage of the war.
The minutes of Olmert's appearance before the war probe panel are studded with panel members' suggestions that Olmert took decisions without doing enough to discuss alternatives or seek information beyond what the military told him.
Asked whether he displayed any skepticism about what the military told him, Olmert told the commission's five members that in his position, he had to ''apply another perspective that they (military commanders) don't have and can't have.'' At the end of his testimony, Olmert acknowledged making mistakes of his own, saying, for example, that he might have met more often with senior Cabinet ministers to consult with them on diplomacy.
According to the AP, Olmert told the panel he was convinced Hizbullah would send rockets into Israel's northern communities -- as it did -- and that he had two options: do nothing or do something from the very first minute. ''I don't think there was any option but to act from the very first,'' he told the commission.
