Avigdor Liberman, who last year was among the politicians most vociferous in their urgings of an Azaria pardon, has been taking a much more circumspect approach since becoming defense minister.
In a Facebook post, Liberman refrains from explicitly calling for Azaria to be pardoned (though he takes pains to point out mitigating circumstances), diverging from the other coalition responses, and some opposition responses, to the sentence.
“Now, after the sentencing, I hope that the two sides will do what is necessary to finish this issue for good,” he writes. “As I’ve said in the past, even those who don’t like the verdict or the sentence are bound to respect the court, and as I’ve also said, the military must stand at the side of the soldier and his family.
“You have, on the one hand, an exemplary soldier, and on the other, a terrorist who tried to kill Jews, and everyone must take that into account.”
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From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
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