PM Olmert: Enough! Israel Will Eliminate Hizbullah and Hamas
19:52 Jul 17, '06 / 21 Tammuz 5766
by Ezra HaLevi


Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the Knesset and the world
Monday evening, saying "Enough!" and promising to fight until the
threats of Hamas and Hizbullah are removed from the region.



Olmert began the speech by offering condolences to families of the
soldiers and civilians killed in the last six days of war. "I want to
offer a big hug to the families of the kidnapped and to the sons
themselves."

The prime minister went on to say that Israel has been threatened on
its borders and though the Jewish State did not request these battles,
it will not back down from fighting them. "We stand at a national
moment of truth. Will we agree to live under this evil threat or will
we fight...There is no more just struggle than that we are now engaged
in," Olmert said, invoking the names of the grandmother and
grandchild killed in a missile attack in Har Meron, 50-year-old Andrea
Zeidman of Nahariya, killed while eating breakfast on her balcony, and
Ella Abouksis, the teenage girl killed protecting her younger brother
from a Kassam rocket on a Sderot street prior to the Gaza withdrawal.

"Our enemies were mistaken to think that our desire to show restraint
was a sign of weakness," Olmert boomed.

In a reiteration of his refusal to negotiate with Hizbullah or Hamas
prior to the release of the kidnapped soldiers, Olmert said: "It is
of regional and international interest to control and dismantle the
terror organizations and remove this threat from the Middle East. We
intend to do so."

Olmert explicitly pointed the finger at Iran and Syria, saying
Hizbullah and Hamas "are nothing but emissaries, sent and supplied by
enemies of peace in Tehran and Damascus."

He also said that even if Lebanon had no involvement in last
Wednesday's attack on an IDF patrol along the northern border, which
killed eight soldiers and resulted in the kidnapping of two others,
"it holds full responsibility for the attack launched from its
sovereign territory and the same goes for the PA with regard to the
Kerem Shalom attack.

"Opposite the Palestinians we will fight until terrorism ceases,
Gilad Shalit is brought home and the Kassam rockets stop," Olmert
said. We will attack every terrorist staging area, destroy every
terrorist base and liquidate members of the terror groups. Israel will
not agree to live in the shadow of the threat of missiles and rockets
on its citizens

"Our position in the north was backed up by the G8 yesterday," he
continued. "We demand a complete end to hostilities, the return of
the two kidnapped soldiers and the compliance with the relevant UN
resolutions...We withdrew to recognized borders according to the entire
international community."

Olmert recited the mishebeirach, the prayer for Divine protection for
the IDF during his speech from the Knesset podium.

"I am more proud today than any other day in my life to be a citizen
of the State of Israel," Olmert concluded. "We will not surrender
and we will not back down."


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Published: 18:03 July 17, 2006
Last Update: 19:52 July 17, 2006