Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman is advocating for an international force to take control over Gaza.
Liberman told a session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday morning (Aug. 4) that Operation Protective Edge is far from over – and that when it does end, there must be a decision made about the disposition of the region.
“There are three options on the table,” said Liberman. “Destroying Hamas, a diplomatic arrangement, or limbo, where they fire and we respond, which is where we were and where we may be heading again now… but in my opinion, the third option is not relevant. The administration of normal country cannot be abandoned to the whims of a terrorist organization,” he said.
As far as Israel is concerned, Liberman pointed out, the goal is to return quiet to the country, eliminate the threat of rocket fire and prevent Hamas from resuming control over Gaza – or anywhere else, for that matter.
“We saw a UN force work well in Kosovo,” Liberman told journalists, “so I think we should consider this option for Gaza… The international community has always demanded that Israel return to the 1967 lines and dismantle communities — in the case of Gaza we did that and destroyed all the towns. What did we get in return? [We got] 18,000 missiles and rockets. We need to wake up from that delusion, that returning to the ‘67 borders is going to bring peace and stability.”
On the heels of Liberman’s briefing with the media, Hamas was already firing rockets at Israel in a barrage of Qassam fire aimed at Gaza Belt communities near the Gaza border, despite another humanitarian cease fire having begun two hours earlier, at 10 am.