The first order that Avigdor Liberman gave when he entered the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv May 31, was to complete an operative plan to defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip. According to one senior security source, Liberman expressed disbelief that no such Israel Defense Forces (IDF) plan was elaborated.
No, he doesn’t think that Israel should conquer the Gaza Strip, summon former Fatah senior Mohammed Dahlan and install him in power over the local residents. Even he knows that these kinds of plans will eventually come crashing down, leaving more damage in their wake. The last time Israel attempted such a move, during the first Lebanon War (1982), it ended up mired in the bloody Lebanese swamp for almost 20 years, and with Hezbollah emerging as the most powerful political and military force in Lebanon.
Besides, while Dahlan may be considered ”close” to Liberman (reportedly, Liberman met with Dahlan in Paris last January), he is unfit to govern in Gaza, or at least Liberman thinks so. Dahlan leads an easy life. He has all that he can want, he travels the world and he lives well. At this stage of his life, he lacks the constitution to throw himself into the sewer that is Gaza.
On the other hand, Liberman does believe that the Gaza Strip is ready to overthrow Hamas. The group’s standing among the general population is being challenged, and quite a few of the local clans and tribes are already seeking an alternative. In the event that Hamas is deposed, the Egyptians could play a productive role by offering Gazans a change in policy. They could open the Rafah border crossing and provide aid, on condition that the people of Gaza install a saner leadership with no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that Cairo deems beyond contempt.
Liberman believes that Hamas is the ultimate evil. As such, its regime must be brought down, and its growing stock of rockets, within touching distance of the southern city of Ashkelon, must be eliminated. Furthermore, the defense minister believes that if Israel doesn’t do that now, within just a few years it will have another Hezbollah on its hands, this one along Israel’s southern border. That is why Liberman has instructed the IDF to prepare an operational plan to defeat and overthrow Hamas in the next round of fighting.
Will that next round of fighting occur soon? It remains an open question. Right now, the stability of Netanyahu’s government depends largely on the police inquiry/investigation into the prime minister’s dealings. Liberman wants to serve at least one year as defense minister, since this will allow him to keep his promise. It is not at all clear if he has that year.
It has been a little more than five weeks since he assumed the position of Israel’s defense minister, and Liberman is enjoying every moment of it. He never worked so intensely. He had it easy as foreign minister, with all sorts of little indulgences. In the other ministries, he was never known as someone who worked from dusk to dawn, and certainly not around the clock. His attention span is limited. He is not the kind of person who looks at things at the highest resolution, and prefers to leave the little details to his staff. He lets the chief of staff and the General Staff do their jobs, without involving himself in appointments, because he has no interest in the minor processes. He is focused on the directives involved in establishing overall policy.
Liberman is no longer willing to receive a presentation of all possible scenarios that the IDF provides before every operation. The outcome must always be the same: There should be just one possible result, under any and all circumstances, in any encounter, on any issue. As he tells it, the result must be decisive. Israel must not leave any conflict without a decisive, clear (winning) outcome.
One security source confided that Liberman is excited about the IDF’s High Command and says that there hasn’t been a General Staff like this in a very long time. His relationship with Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot is quite successful.
In a security Cabinet meeting July 3, bellicose right-wing Education Minister Naftali Bennett attacked one of the generals who briefed the ministers by subjecting him to an endless barrage of questions. Suddenly Liberman interrupted the discussion and instructed the general to stop answering Bennett. According to one security source speaking on condition of anonymity, Liberman said to Bennett, “Wait until he’s finished speaking and then ask your questions.” Though the education minister still insisted on quizzing the general, he didn’t get any more answers. After that heated meeting, Liberman received several enthusiastic reactions from his generals. “We’ve been waiting a long time for someone to put Bennett in his place,” said one general to Liberman.
When it comes to Judea and Samaria, Liberman’s position is different from that of the defense establishment. Given this, he is expected to get into quite a few conflicts with the General Staff and the Shin Bet. For one thing, Liberman believes that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is Israel’s worst enemy and that Israel should strive to end his rule. He considers Abbas’ diplomatic offensive against Israel to be particularly serious, in fact, no less serious than a military offensive.
Here, too, Liberman doesn’t really know what “the day after Abbas” will look like.
Like many others in the security establishment, he believes that there is no single successor to fulfill all of Abbas’ three roles: head of Fatah, head of the PLO and head of the Palestinian Authority. These three positions will most likely be divided among three claimants to the succession, and the West Bank government will be less centralized. Be that as it may, he does not believe that there will be chaos. He rejects warnings of those prophets of rage, who claim that Israel will be forced to run the Palestinians’ day-to-day life and tend to matters such as health, welfare, infrastructures, education, etc. According to Liberman, there is absolutely no basis for that prognosis.
Israel’s defense establishment has already identified quite a few senior Palestinian officials, who could fill Abbas’ positions. The names of people like Yasser Arafat’s nephew Nasser al-Qudwa or head of Palestinian intelligence Majid Faraj have been bandied about in various scenarios.
Liberman believes that Abbas has completed his historic role and that it is now time for him to go. There is no chance of reaching any type of arrangement with him. If he didn’t say “yes” to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s exaggerated plans in 2008 (according to Liberman), he will certainly be incapable of saying yes to anything else. For that reason alone, Liberman thinks, Abbas’ continued presence (or attempts to negotiate with him) is nothing but a hindrance.
bernard ross Said:
None of those left wing Bolsheviks ever pretended to represent any but those who think as they did and voted for them at best. Most however are just corrupt politicians who do what those who own them tell them….
Come Liberman, prior to your big plans…. free the jewish victims of the Yaalon pogroms and then get your AG to indict Yaalon as a serial criminal who abused his authority to obstruct justice at duma and with the hevron soldier.
3 -4 fires on the same family are enough to prove the big lie. those Jews that defend the rights of the Jew killing enemies are nowhere to be found when jews are falsely incarcerated….. come Herzog, come Livni…. dont you pretend to represent all Jews?
yamit82 Said:
I used to say “where is Yaalon” even thougn I knew that Yaalon was just doing what BB wanted…. but it still shows that they cannot claim real right wing credentials, the same now with Liberman if he does not use his portfolio to advance right wing agenda. They are still responsible for their actions even though they do the bidding of BB. Notice that yaalon has quieted down, probably told to lay low by mandebilt and BB, as mandebilt should be indicting and investigating yaalon, even if he was just following orders. Yaalon is going or has gone to a DC think tank.
yamit82 Said:
I have always drawn the conclusion that those appointed by BB tend to do his bidding.
Nothing happens in Y&S without the official or tacit approval of the government of Israel and the IDF. Draw your own conclusions.
bernard ross Said:
This a trick question??? You can’t be serious
@ Eric R.:
I prefer Napalm why destroy infrastructure and arable land?? when you want to just eliminate populations, there are better ways.
@ winta:
winta Said:
Gaza MUST be depopulated then it will be pacified. Gaza as a stand alone entity is not economically viable but it is more viable than all of Y&S potentially…. Israel needs to annex Gaza depopulate the population replace them with Jews and regain control of natural gas and oil resources stupid Barak gave to Arafat worth many billions of dollars if exploited……Gaza could be turned into a ME Rivera with proper investment and a port.
Where is Liberman to prevent these euro scum from interfering with Israeli soveriegnty and breaking Israeli laws. Jail the low life euroscum the boot them out the door. Euros should be banned from areas B & C and all their “humanitarian works” must go through Israeli supervision.
The interfering eurofilth who seeks to empower the muslims against the Jews appears to be getting the shiiite they threw back in their filthy mouths. The muslims use the same stabbing and drive into in euroland as in Israel… HMMMMM?
my own view is to topple them and then let them all kill each other before going in to mop up. In the melee, send in gangs dressed as arabs to facilitate chaos. Only after the smoke clears, go in. Same in PA…. let them burn the place down and then they will be grateful to be alive. Not enough credibility is given to the concept of chaos and its efficacy in war. Everyone always talks about desiring stability but it is the chaos of arab spring which has brought Israel its greatest benefits in decades and we shall see also that chaos in europe will bring benefits to Israel. Folks need to think out of the box.
I can give Lieberman a plan in two words to topple Hamas.
Nuke Gaza.
Liberman is correct! Israel must destroy hamas, BUT that is only the first step. Gaza must be pacified. The only way to do that is to take over the media, the camps and the schools. Teach them Judaism, peace democracy and incite them to build better lives for all. Teach them that violence harms them in the long run.