Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) addressed the recent chemical weapons massacre in Syria’s Idlib province, and attacked the world’s back-turning on the difficult civil war in the country.
Speaking to Yediot Aharonot, Liberman said that “the two murderous chemical weapons attacks on civilians in the Idlib region in Syria and on the local hospital were carried out by direct and premeditated order of Syrian President Bashar Assad, with Syrian planes. I say this with 100 percent certainty.”
“The cruelest thing,” he added, “is that those who were evacuated from the area of the bombing to the hospital were attacked a second time with chemical weapons as Syrian army planes bombed the hospital.”
Liberman attacked the indifference of the world in the face of the chemical weapons attack which claimed the lives of dozens of people, including many children. “The reaction of the international community is zero. It simply does not exist. It brings me back to the conclusion that the State of Israel must rely only on itself. Assad tried in the past to obtain nuclear weapons through North Korea, and the other ‘masters’ in the area like Hezbollah and Nasrallah are no different from he is.”
Liberman added: “What we have here is people who are cannibals. When they ask me why there isn’t peace in the Middle East it’s like asking if a cannibal can be a vegetarian. The word ‘peace’ is not relevant to the Middle East. We can come to regional arrangements, but not to peace.”
To the question of whether Israel needs to respond to occurrences in Syria, the Defense Minister responded: “why do we need to save the castle from the fire? It’s the responsibility of the international community. I am not ready for Israel to be the poor slob that the whole world pisses on. The world needs to take responsibility and, instead of just talking, needs to do something.”