After the disclosure of the "Lieberman document": what did the cabinet know over the years about Gaza?

"I didn't know about this specific document, but there were discussions in the cabinet in those years about the Gaza issue. When the day comes, there will be a serious discussion, I suppose, about everything that happened and everything that was," Elkin said, adding about the political tensions, against the background of the tweet that Prime Minister Netanyahu uploaded and deleted , in which he attacked the heads of the security forces: "I didn't wait for the tweet that appeared after the press conference, I reacted very hard when there was already a massive leak on Thursday evening last week, when there were quotes from cabinet meetings for a year."

According to him, "someone collected them and someone leaked them, there is no free access to these documents. I am very happy that Netanyahu realized following the criticism that it was not true and deleted the tweet and apologized, and I sincerely hope that such cases will not return from any side. Certainly when it comes to people who, on a daily level, next to each other, have to wage this war."

Regarding the question of whether it was a mistake to join the government, Elkin clarified: "Definitely not. It was right. It was right in terms of public trust. Secondly, there is a message here to our enemies, that we know they built on our weakness, on our division, There was a message here that in this period we will all know how to unite in order to strike them down, thirdly, this is a contribution and experience. People with a great deal of experience entered the cabinet, both limited and broad, who have a significant impact on the management of the war as well."

Later, Elkin defined the purpose of the war: "I think that anyone who tries to escape from what was defined in the first place, that is, that Hamas will not control Gaza, I think will miss the goal and it will be a very bad message for Draon Olam and everyone around us. The message should be very clear if we want to return Israeli deterrence – whoever commits such a terrible massacre of Israelis, the price is very, very simple – he no longer exists, he no longer controls, he will lose power over the Gaza Strip. This should be the mission. We must not stop in the middle, we must not do anything, Hamas must not remain in power in the Gaza Strip."

"One of the main goals of this war is to return the kidnapped people home, but you have to understand that you are dealing here with an organization that lies to you and has its own goals because it is afraid that we will topple it and it is trying to smear us, and the experience in the Middle East proves that you never achieve good Nothing, just under pressure. The more pressure we put on Hamas from a military point of view, that he feels that he will in fact soon lose power, the easier it will be to deal with the issue of the abductees as well."

Towards the end of the conversation, he also expressed his opinion on what happened last night in Russia, which is the attempted lynching of Jewish and Israeli passengers who landed in the area, and also on the relationship with President Putin: "I think we were wrong. Just as there were military concepts, we also were wrong in the concept on this issue."

"I have been warning for a year that there is a strategic change in Russia, it has entered into a frontal conflict with the US and all Western countries, that is why it is getting closer to Iran, that is why it is also changing its attitude to what is happening here in Israel and in the Middle East. The Russian embrace of Hamas is very dangerous. No one would talk to Daesh and would not invite them, so when this is what happens, when the images on Russian television, which is always controlled from above, broadcast a very one-sided image and blame Israel for what is happening in Gaza, there are circles that are Islamic radicals who understand it as a wink that the government will not intervene." .

"By the way, the writing was on the wall. The day before there was an attack on a hotel in an attempt to look for Jews and Israelis there, so Israel needs to wake up," he stressed. "This is our war, but this thing has an impact on the conflict between the powers, as it has always been in wars in the Middle East and we know where we are, we are part of the family of Western countries, we are a strategic partner of the USA.

Maybe for a moment someone got confused and thought that we, as a third world country, could manipulate the Russians and the Americans. In the end, the moment comes when you understand who is your friend and who is not, and I think that in these events we see it clearly and we need to wake up and realize that here too we have made a mistake in the concept."