Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged French President Nicolas Sarkozy Monday night to prevent the United Nations Security Council from bringing to the floor a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, telling the French leader that Israel was forced into launching Operation Cast Lead out of a desire to defend the lives of its southern citizens.
"The goal of the operation is not to destroy the Hamas leadership, even though we are able to do this, as well," Olmert told Sarkozy. "We defined from the very beginning a limited goal - to change the security situation in the South and to free thousands of citizens from the threat of terror."
"In view of the diplomatic developments, it would be unwise to pass a resolution on the matter, since past experience has proven that Israel cannot afford restricting its freedom to act against terrorism - today Hamas, tomorrow Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad and Al-Qaida," he continued.
"Sometimes the need to find a compromise in the UN comes at Israel's expense," the premier said, adding that Israel has "experience in this matter."
Olmert also expressed his opposition to a cease-fire agreement similar to the one which was accepted in June, implying that the first arrangement may have created a more perilous situation for Israel.
"I am a man of compromise," he began. "I have conducted two negotiations in an effort to bring about compromise. However, on one thing I cannot compromise, and that is the security of Israeli citizens."
"We will not be able to come to a compromise when Hamas is able to fire in another month or two on the Israeli population," the prime minister said. "Before the ceasefire, Hamas had rockets that could reach as far as 20 kilometers. After the ceasefire, the range of their rockets grew to 40 kilometers, threatening the lives of a million Israelis."
"We cannot reach a compromise that would enable Hamas to fire at yet more cities and towns in Israel," he added.
Olmert reiterated US President George W. Bush's statement, according to which the end result of the Gaza operation must be that Hamas "not only stops firing, but also lose its ability to fire in the future."
The UNSC is set to meet on Tuesday to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip, and France is currently residing as its president.
