Former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said on Wednesday that, if they form the next government, they will push for a hardline deterrence policy against Iran while seeking to rebuild frayed ties with American liberals and the European Union.
Bennett, a security hawk leading the B’Yachad party alongside Lapid, told party members at an internal policy conference in Tel Aviv that attacks from Iranian proxies should be treated as if they came from Iran.
“If Hezbollah fires at us, we strike Iran. A strike by the Iranian octopus’s tentacles inside Israel’s borders will exact a price inside Iran’s borders,” Bennett declared.
While accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of tearing “Israeli society to shreds” and thus being ineffective against foreign enemies, he echoed the premier’s insistence that Israel refuse to pull back in Gaza until Hamas is disarmed.
Bennett also said he will not allow Qatar or Turkey to have any role in postwar Gaza, reiterating his call for Qatar to be labeled an enemy state.
