Priority is to bring back safety and security to civilians, says Israel opposition leader

Edited excerpts:

How do you see the situation since October 7, and what’s happening in Israeli society right now?

Unfortunately Hamas has pushed us to a war we didn’t want. This is a war we didn’t hope for, especially not the way it’s being done. On October 7, probably over 3,000 terrorists crossed the border and invaded 22 towns and cities in Israel, going from house to house massacring entire families. The things that they did there are crimes against humanity.

There has been some criticism of the Israeli response, in the form of air strikes, which has killed civilians in Gaza. What do you say to that?

The only response that the world can live with, is to completely eliminate them. This is not a territorial war, but one of extremism. These are extremists who have waged jihad on our citizens. This has nothing to do with territory. In the same way that ISIS and Al Qaeda were eliminated, we have to eliminate them no matter how long it takes. If this happened once, it can happen again. What’s happening now is Israel needs to act and the result of this action will determine whether us Jews actually live here in our land or not, whether our children can safely attend school, whether we can go shopping or walk about freely. This fight is a fight for our values and to live in liberty and freedom. If we don’t win this war, then extreme Islam will win over our values.

You were part of Netanyahu’s party, Likud. And then you moved to the Opposition about three years ago. As an opposition leader, were you fighting against the current government led by Netanyahu against the judicial reforms bill?

I left the Likud party about three years ago, and we’ve been fighting for the last year over the so-called judicial reform legislation here in Israel.

Did the political divisions, especially over the judicial reforms legislation, lead the Netanyahu government to drop the ball in defending the country?

We have internal challenges, as anyone else. Can you tell me if England wasn’t involved in political challenges, or Lebanon, or Italy? There are so many countries facing political challenges. That’s not an excuse for anyone to wage a war on them, to go in (and) murder innocent civilians. Did anyone attack London or Lebanon when they had that kind of political difficulty? We will be able to overcome these internal things and work it out. But anything to do with our safety and security, we are united. That horrific Saturday when those crimes were committed, the opposition — who has been combating for three years on the political arena — said it will back this government in any act to defend our country and our people. They will get full backing from us in the Opposition.

What do you think is going to be the impact of this in Israeli society, between Israeli Jews and Arabs here? Do you feel the fault-lines will be exposed after the attacks now?

This will determine whether Jews and Arabs are capable of living side by side here in Israel. There are many Israeli Arabs who feel it is their duty to serve the country, in the military. When a terrorist organisation murders innocent civilians at that scale, many Arab Israelis would want to join the fight against that. They, for me morally, have no right to live in Israel. They can easily receive a Palestinian citizenship. If we see the Arab Israeli community joining in on this fight, it will create massive challenges and a big question mark about the possibility of Arabs and Jews living together.

I don’t think anyone of any religion can support those kinds of acts, let alone celebrate and participate in them. The level of massacres, the horrific actions, murdering children, kidnapping them, holding them hostage… Children are watching their parents being murdered before their eyes. They’re being held captive in Gaza. God knows what they are doing with these children. How can you support any of these actions?

On the question of the judicial reforms law, what does that law mean for Israel, as a free society as a democracy?

All issues concerning the war have been postponed from the coalition and from the opposition, and that was our agreement. We actually entered the coalition a week ago. And, one of our conditions was to put everything aside. The only thing that we are going to concentrate on together, is how we win this war and bring back safety and the security to the people of Israel.