Liberman says party backs death penalty for terrorists, but stormy Knesset session ill-timed

Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman says his party continues back the death penalty for terrorism, but says today’s contentious Knesset discussion was ill-timed.

“About the timing, it’s clear that today there was no reason for this discussion,” Liberman says, noting that no part of the bill was up for vote.

Several hostages’s family members begged lawmakers to shelve the bill until their loved ones are brought home from Gaza.

Yisrael Beytenu has put forward a version of a terrorist death penalty bill since 2015, he says.

Liberman, a hawk, reaffirms his stance that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is operating under the “wrong conception,” in an “attempt to buy security with quiet, attempt to not set off anyone.”

“The same wrong conception continues to be the controlling conception… in the state and diplomatic corners,” Liberman says, adding that National Unity ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot are “integral parts” of the approach.

“What additional red line needs to be crossed,” he asks, before the government changes its approach to enemies and the ongoing war.

He also says, “The director of Shifa Hospital is not a doctor, he’s Doctor Mengele.”

“There’s no way he didn’t know what happened there,” Liberman continues, saying that the hospital hosted executions, tunnels, and terror infrastructure — accusations also made by the Israel Defense Forces.