A Kadima Knesset Member who lives several hundred feet from Gaza blames Defense Minister Ehud Barak for the latest escalation in rocket attacks on southern Israel.
Barak “responded too little and too late” to the terrorist attacks, Kadima MK Shai Hermesh told Arutz Sheva.
The fields of MK Hermesh’s Kibbutz Kfar Aza are in full view of Gaza, and a full army platoon is on 24-hour duty there.
He charged that Israel has suffered from lack of deterrence since a sudden barrage of 50 rockets in two hours' time hit Israel earlier this year. “There was total silence” from the IDF, MK Hermesh stated.
He explained that Hamas “understood this very well and two weeks later had no trouble in firing a lethal missile on a school bus” seconds after it dropped off most of the children at Kfar Aza. One teenager was killed by the laser-guided missile, made in Russia and smuggled into Gaza from Iran.
"The writing was on the wall” for a response,” MK Hermesh continued, “but the response did not come, and then came the missiles” in the past few days. “Barak responded too little and too late.”
Although the MK sits in the opposition, led by Kadima, he said the party would support a strong retaliation but that Barak is afraid of the lack of international backing,
“How is it possible to find a solution when Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman” sit in the same government, the legislator asked rhetorically. Barak is the most left-wing member of the coalition, and Lieberman’s views are exactly the opposite concerning relations with Arab states that are hostile to Israel.
MK Hermesh also blamed Barak for not responding properly to rocket attacks during the Olmert government, when he also was defense minister. “Barak was too busy trying to topple the Olmert government.” according to the Kadima MK.