Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday reiterated statements he made last week, telling students and protesters at a school in the South that Israel would continue to work to secure the freedom of captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, but "not at any cost, and not under any circumstances."

Barak advised students at the school "not to whine and not to be spineless... We've overcome some very difficult things, and we will face even harder things."

Noam Schalit, Gilad's father, responded to Barak's statement by saying that his family "expects less talk, less statements and more actions."

Dozens of mothers from Kibbutz Magen in the Negev arrived at the Nahal Habsor School, not far from the Gaza Strip, to demonstrate for Schalit's release.

Replying to a student who asked Barak whether the state could protect his life when he joined the army, the minister said, "The state cannot protect your life... We're not in Western Europe or North America."

The defense minister went on to say that Israel is a place where "whoever is not strong and confident, whoever blinks when faced with Kassam rockets, kidnappings and military cemeteries, cannot survive."

However, Barak did promise the student that when he enlists, his comrades would be prepared to sacrifice their lives in order to save him.

"When you join a combat unit, you will be serving with people like yourself who are prepared to risk their lives to save you, and you have a country that will go to great lengths to save you," he assured the student.

In response, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Barak should have expressed himself differently when speaking to youngsters.

"He needn't have told them that here in the Middle East, you need to take risks. They know that. But by coming after three years and using the term 'whining,' he managed to insult the numerous Free Schalit activists," Lieberman told Army Radio.

"The defense minister would gain a lot more by speaking less," continued the foreign minister.

"In my next meeting with him, I'll tell him to hold his tongue, and as an educator, I will tell him that some things just shouldn't be said to our youth, who are prepared to sacrifice themselves and join combat units."

Lieberman added that it wasn't about securing Schalit's freedom "at any cost," since such a cost had no limits. "There are more straightforward remarks, like the fact that we need to bring Gilad Schalit home, and do everything we can," he said.

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