Livni Working for Breathing Room

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gave a pep-talk to the Cabinet on Sunday morning, during the meeting that retroactively approved the ground offensive into Gaza. 

“Our intensive diplomatic activity of the last few days,” Livni said, “is designed to ward off the pressure we face for a ceasefire, and to create some breathing space for us to continue our military activity and reach its objectives.”

“The Arab countries have tried to promote diplomatic activity in the United Nations to stop our military offensive,” she said, “and this effort has been blocked by us.”

“In all my diplomatic contacts,” she said, “I make it clear that I oppose any narrative of the situation that makes any equality between us and Hamas.  Hamas utilizes terrorist tactics, and we are acting out of our right to self-defense.  At the same time, we are making extra sure that Hamas continues to be isolated on the international stage, as we have done since Hamas took over Gaza. This is a war against a terrorist organization, not a war between two countries that needs to be ‘resolved.’”

"International Community Can Help"

Speaking on Sunday with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Livni said, “The international community can help Israel strike down Hamas capabilities by impairing its motivation to want to hit Israel.  The more pressure exerted by the international community on Hamas, and the more our military offensive applies pressure as well, the faster we will reach our goals.

“It is clear that the photographs [of dead civilians] continuing to come from Gaza will make it harder for all of us to keep on withstanding international pressure,” Livni told the Cabinet. “That is why we are concentrating now on our humanitarian activity. To this end, today we will be opening a special command room in the Foreign Ministry and Territories Liaison, to which we will bring members of the international media and representatives of the humanitarian organizations working in Gaza.”

She related to the unavoidable comparisons with the 2006 Second Lebanon War: “The war in Lebanon ended in a diplomatic arrangement, but today we are in a different place.  The objectives today are military.  We went in to strike against terrorism, and to impair the capabilities and motivation of Hamas.  My position in favor of a long-range goal of toppling Hamas is known; this is not a one-time operation… For this situation to end in a diplomatic arrangement with Hamas would be contrary to our strategic goals; our diplomatic activity concentrates on weakening Hamas and striking it, as I described… Anything that weakens Hamas is good from our standpoint.”