Zehava Galon
Zehava GalonFlash 90

MK Zehava Galon, Chairperson of the far-left Meretz party, spoke with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday morning, demanding that he cancel Operation Protective Edge which was launched the previous night in response to the flood of Gaza rocket fire.

Galon criticized Netanyahu, saying he should "stand steadfastly and not obey the warmongers who call for a ground entry into Gaza, which could drag us into an additional war."

It is worth noting that the word Galon used for "steadfastly," eitan in Hebrew, is part of the Hebrew name for the operation - tzuk eitan - which roughly translates as "steadfast cliff."

The call by Galon to stop the operation directly mimics those made on Monday night by Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who like Galon warned of "further destruction and instability" while ignoring the lethal rain showering on southern Israel - as of Tuesday morning over 170 rockets were fired in a 24 hour period.

"We know that there is a heavy price of blood for those who live by the sword, even when you are on the side that holds the bigger sword," added Galon.

The leftist MK's comments come after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with security and defense officials on Tuesday, and gave the IDF a directive to "take the gloves off" in its operation against Hamas. He added that the terror group "chose escalation" and will "pay a heavy price."

There have been numerous calls for Israel to retake Gaza from Hamas in recent days given the massive upsurge in rocket fire on Israel from the terrorist enclave.

Galon's call to ignore "warmongers" who argue that a ground operation is necessary to weed out the constant terror comes the same morning that Tourism Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beytenu) predicted the operation will include a ground assault.

The MK's criticism of the IDF operation is nothing new; last month she condemned Operation Brother's Keeper, which sought to rescue the three Israeli teens who were later found murdered by Hamas terrorists, criticizing the operation for trying to weed out the terror infrastructure in Judea and Samaria.