Right-wing MKs demand escalation amid rocket fire targeting Israel

Former defense minister Liberman: "Netanyahu is good for Hamas."

By GIL HOFFMAN
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem last June. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem last June.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Knesset members on the Right urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to take more steps to stop rocket fire on Israeli civilians from the Gaza Strip.
Former defense minister Avigdor Liberman blamed the escalation on Netanyahu, who he said permitted NIS 30 million to be transferred to Hamas this month. He said it was time for the security cabinet to decide its "end-game" for the Gaza Strip."
"We have lost not only our deterrence but also our sovereignty," Liberman said. "It is Netanyahu who does not permit the IDF to touch those who give the orders to fire the rockets.
New Hope MK Yoaz Hendel, who served in the elite Shayetet 13 naval commando unit, said Netanyahu must follow in the footsteps of former prime minister Levi Eshkol, who decided to liberate the half of Jerusalem that was not under Israeli control in the same Knesset bomb shelter to where Hendel was evacuated following rocket fire on Jerusalem.
"We have suffered from intermittent rocket fire from the Gaza Strip for more than a decade, because we have not made a decision," Hendel complained. "Putting out fires is not a strategy."
Religious Zionist Party MK Avi Maoz said it was "time for the government to end its policies of restraint and start eradicating terror with zero tolerance."

For more on Hamas attacks and IDF operations read hereFor more on rocket attacks against Israel read here
For more on Israeli strikes on Gaza read here.For more on world reactions to Gaza violence read here
For more on Israeli Politician Gaza reactions read here

Yisrael Beytenu MK Alex Kushnir, who is a resident of Ashkelon, warned that his city has 40,000 unprotected apartments exposed to rocket fire. He said residents of the city were unfortunately prepared from past experiences but more needs to be done to protect them.
Likud MK Gadi Yevarkan warned Hamas that it would pay a heavy price for targeting Israeli civilians.
"Mighty empires did not succeed in destroying us, and neither will Arab terror," Yevarkan said.  

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Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevich (Blue and White) said "there is no enemy who could harm our faith and our determination."
On the Left side of the political camp, however, Meretz MK Yair Golan, said he saw it differently.
"Withdrawing from the Gaza Strip was the right Zionist thing to do," said Golan, who is a former IDF deputy chief of staff. "If we want a country that is free and democratic and remains the national home of the Jewish people, we have no choice but to separate" from the Palestinians.


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