MK Alon Schuster from the National Unity Party blasted the conduct of the government in the wake of recent terrorist attacks, and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to walk back his intention to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Speaking to Israel National News on Sunday, Schuster said, "Throughout all the years, we knew how to get through difficult times, first of all with calmness and with the help of skilled people. Unfortunately, for example, the Ministry of National Security does not have a skilled person running it. On the other hand, the Ministry of Defense has one, and the position of the Minister of Defense needs to be strengthened again. [Gallant is] a suitable man by all accounts. The Prime Minister should immediately announce that he has retracted the decision to fire him."
He outlined two important points in dealing with the current situation, the first one being "calm and measured decision-making. Terrorism will not determine when we launch operations, we launch operations when it suits us, when there is intelligence. In the meantime, we are defending ourselves and maintaining national resilience. I believe we will get through this. On this issue there is no coalition or opposition, we are one nation united against our enemies."
A second point that Schuster pointed out is the protection of towns in northern Israel. "There is at least one important decision that needs to be made, and that is to continue the policy that we started together with Gantz and the Ministry of Defense, to protect the residents of the north."
On a general level, he positively noted the behavior of the security forces, saying, "Fortunately, the police, for example, know how to work properly and it always helps when there is a minister like Benny Gantz, or in this case like Gallant, who give a sense of security, who know what it is about. Little by little, we will do it when necessary and, when necessary, we know how to attack in a very significant way and we have done it, we dropped fifty tons of bombs on important Hamas properties, they understand the message and I hope they calm down."
As a resident of southern Israel, which is regularly targeted by rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, he maintains an optimistic tone despite the difficult times.
"You can't call it getting used to, but we have a lot of experience with [rocket fire] on holidays and on Shabbat, it's not appropriate, but it's part of life. I look at it from a certain perspective and say, ‘The terror from Gaza has been trying to harm us for 20 years and look where we are today. In my kibbutz (Mefalsim) we have doubled the number of residents, in Sderot we will soon double the number of residents. The government, together with the local leadership and the wonderful residents, now how to stand up to the very difficult security challenge and grow and be happy," said Schuster.