Former Israeli Defense Minister: Israel must prepare for war with Egypt

Former Israeli Defense Minister and Member of the Knesset Avigdor Lieberman said that Israel must start from the beginning, that is, reset the clock and rebuild everything in the concept of security, building force, prioritization, orders, instructions, procedures and methods, financial affairs and defense budgets, now and not tomorrow.

Lieberman wants to redraw the structure of the defense establishment in Israel and detail what the Israeli army should look like tomorrow after the “iron swords” that Israel is currently launching against the Gaza Strip.

He said the defense budget must immediately rise from 70 billion shekels ($19,030,459 billion) annually to 95 billion shekels ($25,827,051,500 billion), at least for ten years, adding, “There is no choice… Everything here is based on a wrong policy and a distorted perception of reality, and we got the evidence on October 7… Now we need to fix it”.

In the part related to Lieberman’s new military plan for Israel regarding the border with Egypt, he said, “Our borders are exposed, on the longer borders, with Egypt and Jordan… The number of soldiers there is very low… There are threats, including smuggling, also on the border with Egypt, and we saw a few months ago an incident in which one of the infiltrators was killed… Three fighters, we must add two fully combat brigades to the Egyptian border and three brigades to the Jordanian border”.

Lieberman added, “We need another professional brigade, at the naval level, a rapid intervention brigade made up of permanent personnel, who know how to reach anywhere by helicopter, in a short time, and to be on alert 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with Egypt’s borders”.

He continued, “And another thing; our outposts need a major upgrade… In the south, they are less suitable for heavy missile threat and combat, but more suitable for defense… We need completely new outposts, which will also allow active combat… We need to urgently increase the number of outposts in the north as well… This will cost a fortune but not There is a choice”.

Lieberman added, “If I want to build a villa in the forest, it costs money; Everything around us is burning, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and Israel, and who said that Egypt is stable? Is Jordan stable? That Syria won’t rebuild its army soon?”

“In the Middle East, everything is temporary, and you must always be prepared for any scenario… The Eastern Front could return at any moment… We’re not in Scandinavia”.

He said: “One must always be prepared for war with Egypt and Jordan, even though we currently have a state of non-war, but you don’t reach such arrangements here except out of strength… When you are weak, nothing will last, and part of our reputation and brand is severity”.

Lieberman concluded, “Israel suffered a strong blow recently in Gaza, and we must restore that and the feeling of security among citizens and the belief that Israel is capable of providing security and restoring national honor”.