Avigdor Liberman: IDF counterattack a 'wimpy response'

"All they did was throw four bombs at sand," Yisrael Beytenu chairman tells Army Radio.

By LAHAV HARKOV
IAF F-16 fighter jet (photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN'S OFFICE)
IAF F-16 fighter jet
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN'S OFFICE)
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avgidor Liberman called the IDF's counterattack to a Gazan rocket  "a wimpy response of a faux government." Liberman, along with a number of opposition MKs, had mixed reactions to the Israel's response.
"All they did was throw four bombs at sand," Liberman told Army Radio on Wednesday. "The is a government that does not get in the way of terrorist organizations rehabilitating their terrorist infrastructure."
After firing rockets at Israel, explosions in Gaza from IDF strike
He recounted that, during coalition talks, he demanded that the government's guidelines stated that they plan to eradicate Hamas rule from Gaza, "but it was clear that Likud has no intention of setting that goal or realizing it. That's part of the reasons we are not part of the government."
Immigration and Absorption Minister Ze'ev Elkin responded that for six years, while Liberman was foreign minister, the policy was to respond every time a rocket was shot from Gaza, and that policy continues.
MK Omer Bar-Lev (Zionist Union) also called the IDF response "minor, to say the least."
"Israel does not have a policy in connection to the conflict in the south. [Netanyahu] does not have a vision or a plan and apparently not the will to bring a diplomatic process and international intervention that will bring any change in the ritual in which we have been trapped for 14 years," he added.
Meretz chairwoman Zehava Gal-On warned that the IDF bombing was too strong a response. Gal-On called on Netanyahu to "take a deep breath and don't be dragged after politicians who want to bring us back to Operation Protective Edge, bring Hamas's collapse and deteriorate us into another escalation.
"It's true that a rocket launched at Gan Yavne that puts people in shelters is intolerable, but responding with bombs and force will not prevent the next round [of fighting]. We already saw it doesn't work," she added.
Instead, Gal-On suggested that the government offer incentives that will reduce Gazans' motivation to commit acts of terrorism, as part of a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians and with the Arab League's cooperation.