Liberman: Israel, Hamas holding negotiations via Egypt
Ex-FM accuses government of trying to pass problem of Gaza onto its successor, says leadership incapable of dealing with terror
Israel is holding negotiations with Hamas through Egypt and the United Nations, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman claimed Saturday, and accused the government of “buying quiet” from the Palestinian terror group that rules the Gaza Strip.
“Israel is holding negotiations with Hamas via Egypt and the UN envoy to the Middle East Nikolay Mladenov,” Liberman told a cultural event in Beersheba, according to Haaretz newspaper. “Dozen of messages have been passed from Israel to Hamas in order to buy quiet, so that the problem can be passed onto those who come after [the current government],” the former foreign minister said.
“Hamas wants a seaport in Gaza so that it has an unsupervised border crossing, and can freely bring in missiles, rockets and weapons, and create there a reality akin to that of [Iran-backed] Hezbollah in south Lebanon.”
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said Saturday that the issue of a seaport for Gaza had been resolved as part of reconciliation negotiations with former close ally Turkey. He did not go into details.
Egypt has previously acted as an intermediary for Israel and Hamas, most notably during the conflicts between the two in the past decade. Relations between Cairo and Hamas took a downturn, however, with the 2013 ouster of president Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Hamas-allied Muslim Brotherhood. His successor, former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, has accused Hamas of encouraging terrorism in the restive Sinai Peninsula, and upheld a blockade of Gaza on the Egyptian side of the shared border.
Liberman also said that the government lacks the wherewithal to successfully tackle the problem of terrorism on Israel’s borders.
“This government is conducting a defeatist policy,” he said. “It is a leadership that is mentally, psychologically and personally incapable of dealing with the challenges facing us. The government does not know how to make decisions and is scared to fight terrorism. We must defeat terrorism, not contain it.”
The criticism elicited a swift response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, which accused him of a lack of military expertise and therefore unqualified to pass judgment on the issue.
“Liberman is trying to make a career change from failed political analyst to failed military analyst who never made the grade,” the party said, according to the Walla news website. “[He is] a man who has never led even one soldier onto the battlefield or taken one operational decision. A man who did not survive a single cabinet meeting from start to end cannot be a military commentator.”
A senior IDF officer told reporters Thursday that Hamas is amassing fighters and materiel at a “surprisingly” quick pace in Gaza, but that the terror group does not appear to be prepared for renewed direct conflict with Israel in the near future.
He stressed the terrorist organization would not again drag Israel into a war, and that any future conflict would be one undertaken at the initiative of the Jewish state.
Amid the fast-rising tensions along the Gaza border, Israel on Thursday carried out its largest civilian drill near the Palestinian enclave since its 2014 war with Hamas, Channel 2 television said.
The report added that although Israel believes Hamas does not want a new war now, the IDF has in recent days completed preparations for any outbreak of conflict. It said the army has boosted its deployment adjacent to the Gaza border in preparation for such an eventuality.
The Times of Israel Community.