The upcoming election should not deter the military from a wide-scale operation
in Gaza, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Monday.
“Whoever thinks we
forgot how to deal with continuing attrition, whoever thinks that we will allow
a quarter of Israel’s population to live under total paralysis is preparing
himself for defeat,” Rivlin stated at a ceremony marking 56 years since the
Sinai campaign in 1956.
Since the campaign, the Knesset speaker
explained, Israel has blossomed and grown stronger, but its enemies still seek
its destruction.
“The Sinai campaign was a military reaction to those who
dared to challenge the fact of the State of Israel’s existence,” he
said.
“Today, not like in those years, our enemies know Israel is a fact,
but their desire to erase us from the map remains,” said Rivlin, adding that
terrorist organizations in Gaza hope to pull Israel into a “continuing, bloody
cycle” and plant fear in the hearts of Israeli citizens.
The Knesset will
hold a meeting on Thursday morning to discuss the escalation in the South,
following a petition by over 25 MKs from Kadima, Labor and
Meretz.
Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar called for an attack on Hamas
leaders in order to prevent terrorist activity.
“These people are
responsible for terror, and we want to stop them from doing it again,” he said.
“They will pay for their actions. What is happening today in the South cannot
continue.”
“Whoever still believes we are a fictitious country will have
to face us over and over again, and the deep commitment of our fighters to
defend Israeli citizens,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Labor leader Shelly
Yacimovich said that the eve of an election is not the right time for a military
operation.
“For action beyond an air attack or hitting a specific target,
stability and a national consensus are necessary,” she told Army Radio. “Maybe a
[wide-scale] operation is necessary, but not now.”
Kadima leader Shaul
Mofaz said that in his experience as a former IDF chief of staff, the best
policy to stop Hamas’s terrorism is to target and assassinate the terrorist
organization’s leaders. “We achieved great deterrence with the policy of
targeted killings,” Mofaz said in an interview with Army Radio.
“Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was strong against [Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas] but not when it comes to Hamas.”
Newly elected Habayit
Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett visited Sderot on Monday, telling residents of
the town on the border with Gaza that they are “the pioneers of our generation.
The swamps of yesterday are the rockets of today in Sderot.”
“The amazing
strength shown by residents of the South gives the government oxygen to act,”
Bennett said.
“Now the government must do its job and instruct the army
to stop the rocket fire on the South immediately.”
Meanwhile, Kadima MK
Yoel Hasson said that Netanyahu should be tutored by former prime minister Ehud
Olmert, former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni and Mofaz on how to deal with
terror.
“Netanyahu, [who] ran in the last election with the slogan
‘Strong against Hamas,’ now shows that his fear is too strong – and the
residents of the South are paying the price,” Hasson stated, adding that the
prime minister seems to be unable to make the necessary decision in order to
stop the rocket fire.