lapid:-israel-should-have-exacted-a-‘far-heavier’-price-from-iran

Lapid: Israel should have exacted a ‘far heavier’ price from Iran

Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman warned Iran will “continue its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons, and continue supplying Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other Shi’ite militias.”

By ELIAV BREUER
 YAIR LAPID in his Tel Aviv office: ‘The elimination of Sinwar sends an important message: Whoever messes with us will die.’ (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
YAIR LAPID in his Tel Aviv office: ‘The elimination of Sinwar sends an important message: Whoever messes with us will die.’
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

The decision not to attack “strategic and economic targets” in Iran was “mistaken,” and Israel can and must exact a “far heavier” price from Iran, opposition leader MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) wrote in a statement on Saturday in response to the Israeli attack.

Lapid congratulated the Israel Air Force (IAF) which exhibited the “highest operational capabilities in the world,” but concluded that “Iran is the head of the Axis of Evil, and must pay a heavy price for its aggression.”

Iran’s future as a nuclear power

Fellow opposition member Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman also praised the IAF’s capabilities, but warned in a post on X that Iran will “continue its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons, and continue supplying Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other Shi’ite militias and various proxies with funding from oil and gas sales.”

“Unfortunately, instead of exacting a real price, it seems that Israel’s government again has sufficed with extravagant actions and public relations,” Liberman added.

Scenes in Iran after a series of Israeli retaliation strikes on October 26. (credit: SCREENSHOT ACCORDING TO 27A OF COPYRIGHT ACT)

Democrats chairman Yair Golan commended the government’s restraint but attributed it either to US pressure or the IDF’s “voice of reason.”

“As things seem now, there is a large potential that the Israeli response damaged Iran’s defense and attack capabilities, but without dragging us into a certain war of attrition, that is not within the range of Israelxs lll’s security and national interests,” Golan wrote on X. 

He called the response a “closing act” and not an “opening act,” and said that if this is indeed the case, Israel’s government can return to dealing with what it “refuses to deal with,” to return the hostages in Hamas captivity.