Olmert: We’ll fight on until attacks end, soldiers returned
By Haaretz Service
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reiterated his conditions for an end to the military operation in Lebanon on Monday evening, saying that only when those three demands are met will Israel consider a cease-fire.
In his first public address since the start of Israel’s offensive in Lebanon last week, Olmert said a cease-fire would first require the return of the two soldiers whose abduction sparked the current conflict, an end to Hezbollah rocket attacks and the deployment of the Lebanese army along the shared border.
“Citizens of Israel, there are moments in the life of a nation, when it is compelled to look directly into the face of reality and say: no more,” he said.
“And I say to everyone: no more. Israel will not be held hostage – not by terror gangs or by a terrorist authority or by any sovereign state,”
“There is nothing we want more than peace on all of our borders,” Olmert told the Knesset. But he said, “Israel will not agree to live with rockets fired on its citizens, he added. “Only a nation that can protect its freedom deserves it,” he stated.
And this as well……..
PM Olmert: Enough! Israel Will Eliminate Hizbullah and Hamas
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.
“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.”
Just look at what Israel is wanting for a cease fire.
– Its soldiers returned
– Hezbollah to stop the rocket attacks
– Lebanese army to patrol the border
Is that something so difficult for the world to understand? Just three simple things and Israel will cease fire. Why can’t Hezbollah return the two soldiers and stop the attack? Their refusal to comply with Israel’s three simple conditions tells us that they could care less how many lives are lost.
I agree Bob, amazing and when you listed it like that it makes the enemy look even worse.
Superbly stated Bob, instructions that even a blind man could follow. Just another concept that is above the intelligence level of both the Islamists and their apolegetic ‘journalists’.
I received this E-mail from a close friend who said it was from a blogger, I witnessed a similar lesson at Chu Lai in 1969, my apologies WT,it’s long but well worth sharing:
“A difficult lesson
When I was in the Navy, I once witnessed a bar fight in downtown Olongapo (Philippines) that still haunts my dreams. The fight was between a big oafish Marine and a rather soft-spoken, medium sized Latino sailor from my ship.
All evening the Marine had been trying to pick a fight with one of us and had finally set his sights on this diminutive shipmate of mine… figuring him for a safe target. When my friend refused to be goaded into a fight the Marine sucker punched him from behind on the side of the head so hard that blood instantly started to pour from this poor man’s mutilated ear.
Everyone present was horrified and was prepared to absolutely murder this Marine, but my shipmate quickly turned on him and began to single-handedly back him towards a corner with a series of stinging jabs and upper cuts that gave more than a hint to a youth spent boxing in a small gym in the Bronx.
Each punch opened a cut on the Marine’s startled face and by the time he had been backed completely into the corner he was blubbering for someone to stop the fight. He invoked his split lips and chipped teeth as reasons to stop the fight. He begged us to stop the fight because he could barely see through the river of blood that was pouring out of his split and swollen brows.
Nobody moved. Not one person.
The only sound in the bar was the sickening staccato sound of this sailor’s lightning fast fists making contact with new areas of the Marine’s head. The only sound I have heard since that was remotely similar was from the first Rocky film when Sylvester Stallone was punching sides of beef in the meat locker.
Finally the Marine’s pleading turned to screams…. a high, almost womanly shriek. And still the punches continued relentlessly.
Several people in the bar took a few tentative steps as though they wanted to try to break it up at that point, but hands reached out from the crowd and held them tight. I’m not ashamed to say that mine were two of the hands that held someone back.
You see, in between each blow the sailor had begun chanting a soft cadence: “Say [punch] you [punch] give [punch] up [punch]… say [punch] you [punch]were [punch] wrong [punch]”.
He had been repeating it to the Marine almost from the start but we only became aware of it when the typical barroom cheers had died down and we began to be sickened by the sight and sound of the carnage.
This Marine stood there shrieking in the corner of the bar trying futilely to block the carefully timed punches that were cutting his head to tatters… right down to the skull in places. But he refused to say that he gave up… or that he was wrong.
Even in the delirium of his beating he believed in his heart that someone would stop the fight before he had to admit defeat. I’m sure this strategy had served him well in the past and had allowed him to continue on his career as a barroom bully.
Finally, in a wail of agony the Marine shrieked “I give up”, and we gently backed the sailor away from him.
I’m sure you can guess why I have shared this story today.
I’m not particularly proud to have been witness to such a bloody spectacle, and the sound of that Marine’s woman-like shrieks will haunt me to my grave. But I learned something that evening that Israel had better learn for itself if it is to finally be rid of at least one of its tormentors:
This is one time an Arab aggressor must be allowed to be beaten so badly that every civilized nation will stand in horror, wanting desperately to step in and stop the carnage… but knowing that the fight will only truly be over when one side gives up and finally admits defeat.
Just as every person who had ever rescued that bully from admitting defeat helped create the cowardly brute I saw that evening in the bar, every well-intentioned power that has ever stepped in and negotiated a ceasefire for an Arab aggressor has helped create the monsters we see around us today.
President Lahoud of Lebanon, a big Hezbollah supporter and a close ally of Syria, has been shrieking non-stop to the UN Security Council for the past two days to get them to force Israel into a cease fire.
Clearly he has been reading his autographed copy of ‘Military Success for Dummies Arab Despots’ by the late Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. Ever since Nasser accidentally discovered the trick in ’56, every subsequent Arab leader has stuck to his tried and true formula for military success:
1. Instigate a war.
2. Once the war is well underway and you are in the process of having your ass handed to you… get a few world powers to force your western opponent into a cease fire.
3. Whatever you do, don’t surrender or submit to any terms dictated by your enemy. That would ruin everything! All you have to do is wait it out and eventually the world will become sickened at what is being done to your soldiers and civilian population… and will force a truce.
4. Once a truce has been called you can resume your intransigence (which probably caused the conflict in the first place), and even declare victory as your opponent leaves the field of battle.
This tactic has never failed. Not once.
In fact it worked so will for the Egyptians in 1973, that to this day they celebrate the Yom Kippur War – a crushing defeat at the hands of Israel – as a military victory! No kidding… it’s a national holiday over there!
President Lahoud has already begun to shriek like a school girl to the UN Security Council to “Stop the violence and arrange a cease-fire, and then after that we’ll be ready to discuss all matters.”
Uh huh. Forgive me if I find that a tad hard to swallow. He allowed Hezbollah to take over his country. He allowed the regular Lebanese army to provide radar targeting data for the Hezbollah missile that struck the Israeli destroyer. He has turned a blind eye while Iranian and Syrian weapons, advisers and money have poured into his country.
And now that his country is in ruins he wants to call it a draw.
As much as it may sicken the world to stand by and watch it happen, strong hands need to hold back the weak-hearted and let the fight continue until one side finally admits unambiguous defeat.”
I wish I could credit the author, this is the lesson the Islamist need. Thanks, Jack
Jack this is great, thank you sooo much.
Outstanding Jack. That is exactley what needs to happen here. Hezbollah is hoping for the world to step in and put an end to Israel kicking the snot out of them. The world needs to let Israel finish the job or Hezbollah will only be at it againg very soon.
Jack, I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to post your story over at Vilmar’s tomorow. It’s the perfect example of why Israel needs to finish this fight.
By all means get the word out Bob, there are too many pacifists that think we can negotiate a peace with Islam, nearly 1400 years of tyranny have proven that concept wrong. These fanatics hold power through sheer terror, murder and mutilation perpetrated upon their own kind by the Muttawah and the Mullahs.