Haapalah

On March 26, 1981, Yitzhak Kahan was appointed President of the Supreme Court of Israel

On September 28, 1982, Prime Minister Menachem appointed Yitzhak Kahan, president of the Supreme Court, as chair of a special committee of inquiry, with Supreme Court Judge Aharon Barak and Major-General (res.) Yona Efrat.
The “Kahan Commission” met for five months.
On February 7, 1983, the Kahan Commission submitted its findings.
The published its findings, reprimanding PM Begin and Foreign Minister Shamir and placing indirect responsibility for the massacres on both Defense Minister Sharon and General Raphael Eytan.
The commission stated that, "Begin's noninvolvement in the entire issue charges him with a certain amount of responsibility."
With respect to Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, the Kahan Commission determined that he was responsible
for ignoring the possibility of a massacre, both by approving the Phalangists' entrance into the camps and by not lining up resources to prevent the possibility of a massacre.
According to the commission, these omissions indicated that the defense minister had not fulfilled his duties.
The commission recommended that he be removed from his position, and, in accordance with these findings,
Begin did in fact dismiss Sharon.
Tthe commission declared that Chief of Staff, Rafael Eitan, had neither taken the necessary steps to prevent the
danger of a massacre nor tried to stop the massacre once it had started ,and therefore, Rafael Eitan had not fulfilled his responsibilities as chief of staff.
Since he was already about to conclude his term as chief of staff, the Kahan Commission did not recommend
that he be relieved of his duties.
Yehoshua Sagi, head of the Intelligence Branch, was found guilty of indifference and disregard with respect to the Phalangists' potentially dangerous activities.
The commission recommended that, "Major-General Yehoshua Sagi should not continue in his position as head of the Intelligence Branch.", and Major-General Sagi was dismissed.
The Kahan Commission recommended that Amos Yaron, the commander of the IDF troops in Beirut, be transferred to a non-commanding position for three years.
The Kahan Commission determined that there existed a "breach of responsibility of Major-General Drori
who did not take any action connected to the danger expected to arise from the Phalangists' activities.", and OC Northern Command, Amir Drori, was dismissed.

Yitzhak Kahan was praised by a colleague for his mild style. "He never wrote in a judgment, that a party or a witness lied," wrote Justice Shlomo Levin. He rather chose to write that he preferred one account over another. This was a result of Kahan's moderate nature.
Yet, there was another reason: "He acknowledged the limitations of the judiciary in revealing the truth with utmost certainty. It is preferable—so he thought ... —not to taint a person who testified and who cannot defend himself against statements in the judgment."

At the end of his decision regarding Cohen v. Mantsura, IsrSC 36(1) 222. , the President of the Supreme Court at the time, Yitzhak Kahan, observed:
“Indeed the use of this rule [the 1979 amendment] might cause a problem at times. When the circumstances are different, it will not be appropriate that the action be adjudicated in Israel, for example when an Arab resident of Gaza files a claim against another resident of the same region, and brings the action before the court in Jerusalem, however this difficulty can be overcome as provided in...