Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Lieberman warned the Knesset on Monday that Israel had “a maximum of three years” before it would face another, tougher round of fighting with Iran and urged the coalition to rewrite the state budget so that defense spending is fixed at 8 percent of gross domestic product.
Speaking first from the Knesset rostrum and later at his faction meeting, the former defense minister argued that Tehran was “determined to exact revenge” for the blows it suffered in the recent Israel-Iran exchange and was already rebuilding its damaged nuclear program. “These are not theoretical threats,” he said. “The next stage will be more complex and more difficult.”
Lieberman called the current budget debate “madness,” insisting that defense money must be taken out of coalition horse-trading. “The defense budget must never become a bargaining chip,” he said. He proposed legislation that would lock in the 8 percent GDP figure and prevent future governments from trimming it during coalition negotiations.
Gaza criticism
Turning to the Gaza Strip, Lieberman accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of prolonging Hamas’s survival by authorizing daily humanitarian convoys.
“Hamas is alive, breathing and kicking only because the ‘October 7 government’ is pumping medicine, fuel and food into Gaza,” he told reporters. Reservists guarding the convoys, he said, complain that they are allowed to fire only warning shots while feeling “their lives are at risk.”
He also charged that reserve engineers were being sent “to pull down buildings with their bare hands” for lack of bulldozers and modern armored personnel carriers, while hundreds of millions of shekels in humanitarian relief were being transferred “at the Israeli taxpayer’s expense.”
Lieberman urged the coalition to strike a deal for the release of the 120 Israelis still held by Hamas. “If the military pressure has run its course, what are we still doing there?” he asked.
Once the hostages are home, Israel should adopt the Lebanon model, he added, noting that the IDF has killed roughly 200 Hezbollah operatives since the November ceasefire on the northern front. “We will hunt down every terrorist who took part in the October 7 massacre until his last day,” he vowed.
Political implications
The veteran MK insisted that the cabinet must “wake up and change every national priority” ahead of the coming confrontation with Iran. His warning comes as the coalition faces internal wrangling over the 2026 budget and amid renewed debate over the cost of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Lieberman’s proposal would require reopening the entire state budget—an unpopular move inside the coalition—but the opposition party leader said any delay would leave Israel exposed. “Iran’s nuclear program was hit hard,” he acknowledged, “but it was not destroyed and can be rebuilt. That is what the regime is working on with all its might.”