New conflict may erupt on Gaza border, Lieberman says

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that the truce at the Israeli-Gaza border is deceptive and a new conflict may erupt at any moment as the Palestinian Hamas movement and other groups in the Gaza Strip still want to do away with Israel.

"Hamas and the rest of the groups in Gaza have not abandoned their desire to destroy Israel and to harm us," Lieberman said, as quoted by the Israeli Jerusalem Post newspaper. "They know that the balance of power is not in their favor and if they act against us, they will pay a very heavy price," he added. Lieberman also said that if the balance of power shifts, Hamas would not hesitate for a moment to attack Israel.

During the Gaza War in January 2009, Lieberman argued that Israel "must continue to fight Hamas just like the U.S. did with the Japanese in World War II. Then, too, the occupation of the country was unnecessary."

Lieberman, who expressed his views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in 2006, said that the peace process is based on three false basic assumptions: that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the main cause of instability in the Middle East, that the conflict is territorial and not ideological and that the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders will end the conflict.