Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman was asked Sunday morning at the Ynet/Yedioth conference in Jerusalem whether the home front is ready for war, and responded: “In the north the situation is not good, in the south it is the best.” Regarding Iran, Liberman said Iran will have “no presence in Syria and no nuclear weapons.”
At the beginning of his speech, Liberman said: “Iran will not have nuclear weapons, the State of Israel is determined not to allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons. Two things -0 there will be no Iranian presence in Syria and no nuclear Iran.”
“We don’t just say so, we also mean what we say,” Liberman reiterated.
At which point we felt compelled to check the website Is Ismail Haniyeh Dead Yet? Which was established after Liberman’s appointment as defense minister, based on his promise to eliminate the Hamas leader within 48 hours from said appointment should Haniyeh refuse to turn over the bodies of two fallen Israeli soldiers. As of Sunday morning, it has been one year, nine months, three weeks and three and a half days since Liberman made his promise — and Haniyeh is still listed as “No” in the dead Hamas leaders category.
Asked if the home front was ready for war, Liberman replied: “The best situation is in the south, in the Gaza envelope settlements, and the worst is in the north.”
But while it’s true that the civilian population in northern Israel would face a difficult, if not impossible evacuation should Hezbollah, on order from its Iranian masters, launch an attack of thousands of rockets, the reality of the Iranian proxy terror group taking up such a clearly suicidal move is highly questionable. For the time being, Iran is being pushed back by the Turkish Army, the Assad and Hezbollah forces, together with Russian-proxy forces, have suffered heavy casualties from the Americans and the Kurds, and in such critical and lethal conditions, Israel actually provides Hezbollah with a sanctuary of sorts in the form of a safe and peaceful border.
The defense minister should probably devote more time to figuring out safe and expedient escape routes for the residents of northern Israel than to issue needlessly alarming messages.