Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman convened a press conference on July 15, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, attacking what he perceived as the weakness of the government of which he was a member. “We should conquer Gaza,” he said in a confident tone. “We can’t contemplate and hesitate all the time. This hesitation works against us. We have to go all the way. There is no other alternative here.”
Liberman already called to conquer the Gaza Strip and topple the Hamas government back in June 2013, in response to rocket fire from Gaza. “There will not be a choice; what is needed is to seriously consider conquering Gaza and carry out a thorough cleansing,” he said in a radio interview. “Today there are hundreds of factories there working to develop and manufacture weapons, not to improve the quality of life or develop a civilian industry but to develop weapons.”
