Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s planned attack in the North came “too late” and was “possibly too little,” National Unity chairman MK Benny Gantz said following a tour of the Asher Regional Council, including Nahariya and Acre, on Sunday.
“It is time to move from equations to results, from response to taking the initiative. The move that was initiated needs to be leveraged to increase the diplomatic and military pressure, in order to distance Hezbollah and return the residents of the North to their homes in safety,” Gantz said in a joint statement to the media alongside Moshe Davidovitz, Asher Regional Council head and head of the Conflict Zone Forum.
Gantz criticized the government for failing to bring the area’s residents back home in time for the new school year set to begin on September 1, and called on members of the government to “move to the North” and feel for themselves the “pain of the residents.”
Earlier on Sunday Gantz wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “We are all one fist against Hezbollah – the government and IDF have full, broad, and complete backing. Follow the Home Front Command’s guidelines – they save lives.”
A number of other party leaders commented on the Hezbollah attack on Sunday morning.
United Right chairman MK Gideon Sa’ar wrote in a post on X that Israel’s response was the “less correct alternative.”
“Facing Hezbollah’s decision to launch thousands of missiles and rockets, the government of Israel again chose the less correct strategy,” he wrote. “The choice to merely thwart the attack after ten and a half months of Hezbollah’s attack against Israel is the continuation of the policy of containment. This decision has one outcome: only our enemies will determine the timing and scale of the escalation,” Sa’ar wrote.
“This opportunity should have led to a decision on a general preemptive attack to change the reality in the North,” Sa’ar continued. “Leaving the existing reality in the north of the country unchanged means the continuation of containment. There will not be a point of time in the future with laboratory conditions to act. Whoever runs away from war – war will chase him,” Sa’ar concluded.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman wrote on X, “Israel’s government needs to act according to the enemy’s intentions and not according to the results. If Hezbollah indeed intended to fire 6,000 artifacts (missiles, drones, etc.) with the central goal being to hit strategic infrastructure of the state of Israel, just removing the threat cannot suffice. Israel must stop with the constraint and begin initiating, and end the war of attrition and the abandonment of the residents of the North for nearly 11 months, even at the price of a dramatic escalation. Security must be returned to the residents of Israel, and to the residents of the North in particular,” Liberman wrote.
Likud's response
The Likud ordered its members on Sunday morning not to conduct media interviews. Likud MK Tally Gotliv called the decision “absurd.”
“Instead of being interviewed, giving explanations, demanding victory, and strengthening the people of Israel, we will leave the studios to weakening, defeatist propaganda,” Gotliv said, adding that she would not respect the interview ban and “demanded to continue attacking Hezbollah.”
The Democrats Party chairman Yair Golan wrote on X on Sunday morning, “There is no [hostage] deal, there is a war. I said [this would happen], and now it is happening. The minister of history will judge, but about the coming hours two things should be said: The preemptive attack is very important to damage Hezbollah’s long-range missiles; and it is necessary to adhere to the life-saving directives of the Home Front Command, and act accordingly.”