
Yisrael Beytenu party chairman MK Avigdor Liberman said on Thursday that Israel must finish bringing all the hostages home before returning to fight in Gaza.
Speaking at the 2025 Democracy Day conference at Reichman University, Liberman stated, "As someone who voted against the Shalit deal, this is a deal of no choice and there is a significant difference. In the Shalit deal, it was a tactical mistake by a few soldiers who failed, soldiers who were on the battlefield. Here, there was a collapse of political and military systems; it's a failure of the country, and it must take responsibility. First, bring everyone back, and then no one who participated in the October 7 massacre should die a natural death."
Liberman added, "Trump's envoy, Witkoff, wants to see everything with his own eyes, and is coming with all the authority and power to implement phase B. This means Smotrich will be out [of the government]. Every reasonable person would choose Trump [over Smotrich]. No backing is needed because there's already a decision. Even if there are elections, there's already a decision. Legally, there is absolute support, even in a transitional government, for implementing the deal. All parties that put the State of Israel at the top of their priorities will support it because this is a deal of no choice. Afterwards, I don't see how Smotrich remains [in the coalition]. There's the ‘Draft Evasion Law’ and the Budget Law, and I struggle to see how such a [draft] law passes in the coalition."
He concluded his remarks by commenting on the ceasefire in Lebanon. "The Lebanese army doesn't intend to disarm Hezbollah; they didn't comply with the agreement, so we have no reason to withdraw. If we withdraw now, we won't be able to bring any residents home. We must demand that the other side fulfill all its commitments. That's not happening right now."