Yisrael Beytenu Chairman and former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman addressed the elimination of senior Islamic Jihad terrorist Baha Abu al-Ata.
In an interview with the Walla website, Liberman praised security forces but criticized the prime minister: "A year ago, Netanyahu objected to the targeted elimination [of Abu al-Ata] and stood his ground. I thought even a year ago that his time had come, but the prime minister forcibly prevented it. Better late than never."
Liberman also accused Netanyahu of running a "policy of surrender" against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip. "This month, too, the plan is to pay tens of millions of dollars to Hamas inside the Gaza Strip. Those millions are not used for the poor and needy. They are first and foremost used for Hamas' military apparatus and operatives.
"I also think that there was a serious blow to deterrence here, there was a loss of Israeli deterrence here that also negatively affects the other arenas, but right now, as an action, it's good that they did it. It's good that we eliminated this arch-terrorist," Liberman emphasized.