More Fallout Over Israel-Hezbollah War

Top General Resigns, War Crimes Charges Against Israel Considered

(CBS/AP)  An Israeli general who played a major role in the Lebanon war has resigned, while human rights groups in Lebanon are collecting evidence that could be used in war crimes trials against Israel.

Meanwhile, a controversial prisoner swap could be in the works between Israel and Hezbollah.

Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, who was pushed aside by the army chief during the Lebanon war, was the head of northern command, and responsible for the war against Hezbollah. CBS News correspondent Robert Berger (audio) reports Adam was seen as too cautious and hesitant.

Adam is the first senior official to resign amid a growing public perception that the army and government mishandled the war. Israelis want to know why the strongest army in the middle East failed to score a decisive victory against Hezbollah.

The possible war crimes would be filed under a legal principle known as universal jurisdiction, which says that war crimes are so serious they can be prosecuted anywhere — not just where they were committed.

Israeli aircraft and artillery killed more than 850 Lebanese during the 34-day conflict, most of them civilians, and left a moonscape of ruin. Hezbollah pummeled northern Israel with thousands of rockets that killed 39 civilians among the total Israeli war dead of 159.

In other developments:

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, responding to Lebanese guerrillas' prisoner exchange demands, acknowledged on Wednesday that a Lebanese militant held in a deadly 1979 raid was at the center of talks to free two Israeli soldiers. Israel has refused in previous swaps to free Samir Kantar, convicted of killing a man and his young daughter in an attack on their house.

Israel's parliament on Wednesday granted Israeli President Moshe Katsav's request to temporarily step down from his largely-ceremonial position for one day in light of a police investigation into accusations he sexually harassed former employees. Katsav did not want to preside over the swearing-in of the new chief justice of the Supreme Court.

A Jewish-American businessman who has donated money to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert bought a home owned by the Olmert family for 30 percent more than its market value in the mid-1990s, the Haaretz daily reported Wednesday. The questionable purchase would mark the third Jerusalem real estate scandal involving the prime minister in recent months.

Israeli media reported that Adam had several disagreements with Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the army chief, during the war. Military analysts said Adam was seen as too cautious and hesitant and Halutz appointed Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski, the deputy army chief, to command the war while the fighting was still raging.

The month of battles against Hezbollah ended in August with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire but without a decisive victory for Israel.

Rights groups and the U.N. condemned Israel's overwhelming use of force in the aftermath of a cross-border raid July 12 in which Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers as prisoners, saying it caused far too many civilian casualties.

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©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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