Israel’s former war minister Avigdor Lieberman lashed out at the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his army’s ongoing operation to unravel Hezbollah tunnels along the borders.
In an interview on Channel 2’s Meet the Press program on Saturday night Lieberman said Operation Northern Shield on the border with Lebanon should not have been made a more urgent priority than responding to Hamas operations on the Gaza periphery.
“Taking action in the North does not justify inaction in the South” Lieberman said. “What is happening in the North is an engineering act not a military operation. There is no need to put one over the other. Both can be dealt with.”
Liberman said he did not regret his decision to quit last month which he said was an act of protest against Netanyahu’s decision to not be tougher on Hamas.
He said enabling Qatar to provide Gaza with $30 million over the past two months was “surrendering to Hamas” and “buying quiet at the price of our national security.”
In a recent meeting with top generals about the security situation on the Gaza border Lieberman reportedly reacted to statements by Eizenkot opposing a ground invasion into the blockaded Gaza Strip. Lieberman was quoted saying in the closed door meeting that “Sometimes I feel like what I am hearing a meeting of the leadership of Peace Now.”
