Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman: The IDF is ready for any development

Speaking with Israeli radio, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman quipped that even the biblical character of Ruth "would not be able to pass a Jewish conversion under Aryeh Deri or Yaakov Litzman.

By MAARIV ONLINE
Updated: OCTOBER 14, 2018 19:21
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman looks at Syria from the Golan Heights (photo credit: ARIEL HERMONI / DEFENSE MINISTRY)
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman looks at Syria from the Golan Heights
(photo credit: ARIEL HERMONI / DEFENSE MINISTRY)
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said that the Sunday cabinet meeting had "a lot of arguments and publications about the readiness of the IDF," yet he can "provide a first-hand testimony that the IDF is in the top state of readiness since 1976."
Speaking with Reshet Bet radio station on Sunday evening, Liberman stated that "there will always be something to improve" in a "huge machinery which includes 600 thousand men," yet "we are ready for any development."
Netanyahu warns Hamas after Gaza border flare-up, October 14, 2018 (Reuters)
Discussing the Gaza border protests and incendiary balloons being launched into southern Israel, the minister stated that "what we've seen in the last three weeks is unceasing violence on the border of Israel" and said that "from the beginning of these riots not a single Israeli was so much as scratched."
Liberman noted that the IDF destroyed 16 terror tunnels, and that so far 216 Palestinians were killed during these clashes.
"I don't want there to be any illusions," Liberman said. "not to the leaders of Hamas or to anyone else. We will deliver the hardest blow we can give."
In reference to the Russian jet downed by Syria, Liberman said that "we did not give up any of our operational needs in Syria" and stated that "just because you don't hear [about Israeli strikes in Syria] that does not mean it didn't happen."
When speaking on the issue of Jewish conversion, he joked that under the world view of Health Minister Yaakov Litzman and Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee Aryeh Deri, even the biblical character of Ruth "would not be able to pass a Jewish conversion."