Liberman says Israel may have to reoccupy southern Lebanon for 50 years
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"
Hawkish opposition MK Avigdor Liberman calls for Israel to reoccupy southern Lebanon, saying the country must “pay in territory” for damage caused by Hezbollah strikes on Israel’s northern towns.
The former defense minister says Israel’s military must “close off” a swath of southern Lebanon and push the terror group north of the Litani river, even if it means 50 years of occupation.
“It can’t be that there are entire towns where close to half of the buildings were simply destroyed,” he says during his Yisrael Beytenu party’s weekly faction meeting, referring to northern Israel where structures have suffered missile damage.
“We will not annex anything, and we will not build settlements, but we will release the territory only when there is a government in Beirut that knows how to exercise its sovereignty.”
“Everything between the Litani and Israel must be under the control of the IDF,” he says, comparing it to the post World War II military occupation of Germany. “If Lebanon won’t pay in territory we haven’t done anything,” he declares.
Israel’s military occupied southern Lebanon to keep Hezbollah away from the border from 1982 until a chaotic retreat in 2000.
Liberman also takes a swing at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war against Hamas, calling his government one “that does not know how to end the war in the south – or how to act in the north.”
