"If you read the mainstream American media, you would think that what started the latest flare up was Hamas launching rockets and that's where this all began," Plitnick told Radio Sputnik's By Any Means Necessary on Monday, explaining that things came to a boil because Israeli snipers killed two Palestinians participating in the Great March of Return protests.
"The situation in the strip has been such, and the Israeli defense establishment has been warning the political branch about this, saying there's a lot less patience [from Israeli soldiers]… [and that] things are going to flare up."
"And the Netanyahu government ignored that [information]," Plitnick stressed.
Smotrich's remarks are just another example of "chest-pumping" from politicians lacking a say in final military decisions, according to Plitnick, who noted that the chances of such an attack are relatively low.
"I don't think that something like that is necessarily on the immediate horizon, and I don't know that anything quite that big is ever going to happen — certainly not under [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, who doesn't like that sort of action."