Avi Gabbay: Netanyahu must go due to rocket fire from Gaza
"This [rocket fire] is the result of four years of the security cabinet not making decisions," Avi Gabbay said.
By GIL HOFFMANUpdated: JULY 15, 2018 14:29Labor Party Chair Avi Gabbay(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be forced out of office due to his failure to end rocket fire on Israeli civilians in the Gaza periphery, Zionist Union leader Avi Gabbay said at a meeting of his faction Saturday night at Kibbutz Be’eri in the Eshkol Regional Council.“This [rocket fire] is the result of four years of the security cabinet not making decisions,” Gabbay said. “The prime minister cares only about covering his own behind when the security cabinet convenes, so there has been no diplomatic, economic or strategic pressure applied to make the rocket fire stop. Nothing is being done, except waiting or rocket fire and then the army responding. The prime minister has failed to provide security to residents of the Gaza periphery, so the time has come for him to go.”Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid wrote on Facebook that “the Gaza periphery’s residents knew a flare-up was imminent, because the government did not do anything to prevent it. Netanyahu cannot continue to call himself Mr Security, when under his watch, there is no security, fields are burning, and kites and balloons have become a threat, Hamas has become stronger, and the children of the Gaza periphery know they have no one they can rely on.”Lapid, who also visited the Gaza periphery on Saturday, complained that Netanyahu had not come to the region in too long, mocking him for “going to the World Cup instead.”Former defense minister Amir Peretz, who lives in Sderot, said he endured “a crazy, sleepless night.” He said Israel had lost its ability to deter Hamas and needs a new long-term strategy involving new diplomatic and military steps.Culture Minister Miri Regev, who was IDF spokeswoman when Israel withdrew from Gaza, defended the government’s handling of the situation.“The Hamas has paid a heavy price due to the most significant IDF attacks since Operation Protective Edge that caused serious damage to the Hamas’s infrastructure,” Regev said.“Hamas bears responsibility for the attacks from Gaza.”IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot canceled an address to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee due to take place on Sunday because of the escalation in the South.Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg and Zionist Union MK Merav Michaeli called on the coalition to also cancel votes set for Sunday on the controversial Jewish nation-state bill. But the votes are still scheduled to take place, and they will not be postponed, because Netanyahu wants the bill passed into law this week – before the Knesset’s summer recess begins on Wednesday night.
