Former Defense Minister and Knesset member Avigdor Lieberman believes that Israel needs to return to the beginning, reset its approach, and rebuild everything in terms of security, military strength, priorities, orders, instructions, procedures, methods, finances, and defense budgets, and that this should be done now, not later. In an extensive interview with Maariv's editor Ben Caspit, he stated, "The defense budget must immediately rise from 70 billion shekels annually to at least 95 billion shekels for ten years." He added, "There is no choice; everything here is built on a wrong policy and a distorted view of reality, and we received evidence of this on October 7. Now we need to fix it."
Regarding his new military plan for Israel concerning the border with Egypt, he said, "Our borders are exposed, especially the longest ones with Egypt and Jordan, where the number of soldiers is very low. There are threats, including smuggling along the border with Egypt. We saw months ago an incident in which a smuggler killed three fighters. We need to add two full combat brigades to the Egyptian border and three brigades to the Jordanian border."
He continued, "We need another professional brigade at the naval level, a rapid response brigade consisting of permanent personnel who know how to reach anywhere by helicopter in a short time and are on alert 24/7 along the Egyptian border."
He added that "our settlements need significant upgrades. In the south, they are less suitable for the threat of heavy rockets and combat but are more suitable for defense. We need entirely new settlement sites that will also allow for active combat. We also urgently need to increase the number of settlement sites in the north. This will cost a fortune, but there is no option."
Lieberman further commented, "If you want to build a villa in the forest, that costs money... Everything around us is burning: Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and Israel. Who says Egypt is stable? Is Jordan stable? Isn't Syria going to rebuild its army soon? In the Middle East, everything is temporary, and one must always be prepared for any scenario. The eastern front could return at any moment; we are not in the Scandinavian countries."
He concluded, "One must always be prepared for war with Egypt and Jordan, even though we currently have a state of no war. Such arrangements come only from a position of strength; when you are weak, nothing will last. Part of our reputation and brand is the toughness that has taken a hit recently in Gaza, and we need to restore that, along with citizens' sense of security and the belief that Israel can provide safety and restore national honor."
