Ashkenazi said "it is still not too late" for Israel to kill the Syrian leader and that it has the ability to get to him."
By GIL HOFFMANBlue and White MK Gabi Ashkenazi speaks at the The Jerusalem Post-Ma'ariv Elections Conference, September 11 2019(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Israel should have toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad five years ago, Blue and White MK and former IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi said Wednesday at a conference in Herzliya sponsored by the Maariv and Jerusalem Post newspapers.Ashkenazi said that “it is still not too late” for Israel to kill Assad, and that Israel maintains the ability to get to the Syrian president.But he said Israelis are not warmongers. He called for steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, such as building a water treatment plant and facilities to supply Gaza with better electricity.Reacting to the rocket attacks that forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave the stage at a Likud rally in Ashdod on Tuesday night, Ashkenazi said: “We have no deterrence in the South” and that “it was good that the prime minister endured a Color Red rocket-warning alert.”Ashkenazi defended his own behavior in not leaving the stage at his own party’s campaign event at the same time in nearby Ashkelon. He said there was not a secure area for everyone at the rally, so he would not protect only himself.“Leaving everyone and going on my own would not be setting a personal example,” he said.He reiterated that there is no chance Blue and White would enter a government with Netanyahu.“If Bibi doesn’t get 61 MKs on Tuesday, we will form the government,” he said.
