Lieberman: Do to Hamas what the US did to Japan

Lieberman says Israel should follow the example from World War II and avoid occupying the Gaza Strip.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
lieberman 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
lieberman 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Operation Cast Lead must continue until Hamas "loses the will to fight," Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday. "Israel won't be secure so long as Hamas is in power, and therefore we need to come to a decision that we will break the will of Hamas to keep fighting," he said during a speech at Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University. "We must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II," Lieberman added. "Then, too, the occupation of the country was unnecessary." In 1945, Japan unconditionally surrendered to the US following two atomic bomb attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. A ground invasion of mainland Japan had been prepared at the time, but was avoided due to the Japanese capitulation after the bombings. Israel Beiteinu is currently the fifth largest party in Israel, and, according to an average of all polls taken since the start of the campaign season, is expected to become the fourth largest party in the next general election.