From the Liveblog of
Monday, March 11, 2024
Liberman accuses Netanyahu of allowing Israeli deterrence to fall apart
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman says Israeli military deterrence has collapsed under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of adhering to outmoded strategic conceptions which brought about the October 7 massacre.
“Everything that is happening in the north is, in one word, a disgrace. It is impossible to count how many launches there were in the last day in the north of the country,” Liberman tells reporters at his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, referring to dozens of rocket attacks on northern Israel a day earlier.
“The Houthis are shooting at us, from Lebanon they are shooting at us, from Syria they are shooting and the Gaza Strip continues to launch rockets toward the Gaza border region every day,” he continues. “There is an erosion of Israeli deterrence here.”
Turning to Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef’s declaration that Haredim would “go abroad” if forcibly enlisted in the military, Liberman reiterates his earlier criticism, declaring that Yosef’s comments stood “in complete contradiction to Jewish law” and noting that “all the great men of [ancient] Israel were warriors.”
“I don’t understand the attitude of the Haredi [power brokers], who only care about power, honor and money. For the chief rabbi in the midst of a war to say that they will leave the country if they are drafted is clearly irresponsible and unreasonable,” he says.
