Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (HaTnua) made a surprising statement regarding Israel’s security situation Sunday, calling for Israel to crush Hamas in Gaza after news surfaced that 110 rockets have been fired in a four-day period.
“First of all, according to the international community’s view against Hamas, we must act forcefully,” Livni stated, in an IDF Radio interview. “There is no hope for peace [with them], it is an organization that does not accept our existence here and has terror against Israeli civilians as part of its worldview.”
“The question of ‘how much’ and ‘when’, among other things, is related to the needs and considerations of the point in time when we decide to launch an operation [in Gaza],” she added.
Livni, who has been a staunch supporter of peace talks despite Fatah’s unity pact with Hamas earlier this year, advocated an operation in Gaza to counter the terror.
“Even if it will be quiet for a period of time, the struggle [against Hamas] continues,” she said. “It is the government’s job to provide security for the south and for the residents of Israel in general; we will have to see over the next few hours, over the next few days where this goes.”
Livni stressed, however, that she also disapproves of the media circus surrounding remarks calling for a full retaking of Gaza.
“The place to say these things in the Cabinet room,” she fired.
“We have a both personal and collective responsibility [in Israel’s security]; as such, the perception of some of Israel’s citizens that they have solutions, or that ministers have solutions up their sleeves, and that others are simply preventing them from carrying them out, are sorely mistaken – and I am afraid they are misleading the public,” she said, adding that it “saddens” her.
Several ministers and MKs have called for Israel to retake or attack Gaza and institute a “zero tolerance” policy against terrorism over the weekend, after Hamas rocket fire on Israel and violence against Jewish Israelis has increased dramatically.
112 rockets have now been fired at Israel since Wednesday, out of a total of 137 in the past three weeks.
Hamas has been ignoring the IDF’s ultimatum, which on Thursday called to stop the rocket fire within 48 hours or face war.
