Avigdor Liberman: 'Without defeating Iran, Israel will not survive'

Yisrael Beiteinu MK, Avigdor Liberman, spoke to Israel National News - Arutz Sheva, and said that “without a decisive blow against Iran, we will not overcome Hezbollah or Hamas. We are fighting many fronts, but there is only one thing we need to do, to go to the source, which is Iran. Without Iran, there is no Hezbollah, no Islamic Jihad and no Hamas."

"We have won many tactical gains, but we accumulated a greater strategic loss," Liberman says. "We have eroded our deterrence down to zero," he adds and mentions that “the Iranians are telling us that there will be no peace in the north until there is a ceasefire in the south. The same is true of the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria. They are firing at us from every direction. That means that our deterrence has been eroded to zero."

According to Liberman, the answer to regional terrorism must begin with defeating Iran and the destruction of its nuclear program. "In the current situation, if we don’t change the outcome, we have no chance. We cannot afford to lose this battle. If we manage to defeat Iran, everything else will fit into place, even the release of the hostages.”

"We have not provoked Iran and still the Iranians have crossed every red line in recent months. The first time they attacked us directly from Iran, and they have threatened us that if we attack in Lebanon, they will attack us again. I believe that they mean this. The nuclear report shows that they are running full force to produce nuclear weapons, and this is no longer just Israeli propaganda. They are moving forward, and we have to stop them. Whoever talks about setting up an international coalition does not understand what they are talking about. An international coalition will only hinder us and bring us down."

Are Liberman’s claims consistent with Netanyahu's incessant announcements? Liberman immediately denies this: "The problem is that he is only talking. It's been a decade since he brought the blueprint to the UN when he marked a red line. Since then, they have crossed the red line four times, and what has Netanyahu done? Nothing but talk.”