Following is a portion of remarks made on Monday afternoon 9 Tammuz in a live televised press conference by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The senior minister used the event to announce his Yisrael Beitenu Party was ending the union with Likud.
Over recent weeks we heard a great deal of criticism against security agencies and this is an opportunity to commend them for tireless efforts in the apprehension of the suspects in the murder of Muhmad Abu-Khenin, and police for maintaining order during a difficult period. I am confident police will soon restore quiet to the State of Israel. I am also confident that authorities will apprehend the murderers of the three kedoshim.
We are witness to a wave of incitement and hate from both the Jews and Arabs and this must end. The law in a democratic society applies to all, Jews and Arabs alike.
It is not a secret that to my sorrow, of late, relations between my party and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have deteriorated and I will approach the Knesset Committee to officially bring about a split between our parties.
There has already been a great deal of editorializing and I would like to review my comments that were made during Operation Pillar of Defense. At that time, I told Channel 1 News, on 16 November 2012, “This is an operation forced upon us compelling he political echelon to order the operation towards restoring our deterrence and eliminating long range missiles…”
Lieberman explained that to his sorrow, this was not the case during the operation and he told Channel 1 “to my sorrow the next government will have to address this” which he feels is the case today.
The foreign minister emphasizes he has never hidden his view and what he feels the government is compelled to do what needs to be done to deliver a devastating blow to Hamas. He feels Pillar of Defense was incomplete, partially due to the elections and the feeling “Hamas could not be left in a position to determine the outcome of Israeli elections” but today feels the time has come to deal with Hamas once and for all.
Lieberman points out the Hamas problem is daily, weekly and monthly, and it is becoming increasingly threatening and worrisome and needs to be addressed, eradicated from its roots.
The foreign minister reminds the nation that unfortunately the Knesset is not united, reminding listeners of Arab MK Hanin Zoabi who praised the Hamas kidnappers of the three youths and praised them, refusing to label them “freedom fighters”.
The foreign minister explains that while he does not expect to see Israeli Arabs yearning to serve as IDF battalion commanders, “one cannot benefit from both ends of the stick”. He explains the Israeli Arabs are citizens with all rights and privileges on t he one hand and therefore, cannot protest while waving photos of the president of Syria and other enemies of Israel.
Lieberman stresses that there were many significant accomplishments in Operation Pillar of Defense but since that time, as a leading intelligence officer told the Herzliya Conference, today there are hundreds of 80km missiles in Gaza, missiles that can reach Netanya. These are homemade high quality rockets.
The minister feels that Israel cannot tolerate permitting Hamas to have hundreds of longer range missiles that can be used at will against Israel, and by 2015 there will be thousands of such rockets. “This must stop and we cannot continue living under threat and permitting 1.5 million residents to continue having to run to shelters”.
Is the current coalition nearing its end?
I am not attacking the prime minister, who has the right to his opinion, as do I. As one chosen among the leadership of the nation, one must at times make critical decisions despite the ramifications in the media. The issues at hand were not born yesterday but have existed for some time and continue.
There is absolutely no political motive for this decision but despite this there are those who will take this to where it suits them. It still think this is a good government but we must act.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
He is right. Bibs must finally show the hamass he means business! Stop worrying about work opinion and their hypocritical calf for “restraint,” which they don’t demand of the arabs