Liberman: ‘Insulting’ gov’t response to rockets show it’s ‘scared and deterred’

Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman tells Channel 12 that the military response approved last night by the government to rocket fire from Gaza and Lebanon was an “insulting… bad joke.”

Liberman is a bitter opponent of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has come out against just about every decision he has made over the past several years.

“Our response was an insult. Truly a bad joke,” he tells Channel 12. “Nobody [behind the rockets from Lebanon] was so much as scratched — not those who gave the order to fire on the state of Israel and not those who carried out the fire. The instruction was not to so much as scratch anyone. And the same applies to Gaza.”

“They say, it’s the middle of a festival. Ramadan. Well, we’re in the middle of a festival too,” Liberman says, referring to Passover.

“In the middle of [our] holiday they fired on the north, they fired on the south, they murdered sisters. And nothing [in terms of an effective Israeli response].”

He claims the Netanyahu government is “scared” and has been “deterred” by fear of escalating the conflict.

“Our deterrence against [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah has been completely eroded.”