Following are Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on 11 January 2009:

"For three weeks now, the State of Israel has been making an impressive military effort in the Gaza Strip in order to change the security situation in the south of the country. For many years we've demonstrated restraint. We reined our reactions. We bit our lips and took barrage after barrage. No country in the world - not even those who preach morality to us - would have shown similar patience and self-control. At the end of the day, the sense of responsibility and the obligation to defend our citizens, after endless warnings, led us to the unavoidable decision to defend our children and our residents whose lives had become intolerable.

We knew in advance that this struggle would be neither easy nor simple. We did not delude ourselves that what seemed natural, clear and self-evident for any other country, would be received with a proper measure of agreement given that the State of Israel is involved. This did not impair, and does not impair, our determination to defend our residents. We have never agreed that someone should decide for us if we are allowed to strike at those who bomb kindergartens and schools and we will never agree to this in the future. No decision, present or future, will deny us our basic right to defend the residents of Israel.

I must note that UN Security Council Resolution 1860 also sharply rules out continued attacks directed against civilians and does not forbid urgent action against them.

Until now, we have made impressive achievements in the operation being conducted against the terrorist organizations in Gaza. They are the result of the courage, determination and sacrifice of IDF fighters and commanders, from IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi to the soldiers now fighting terrorists somewhere in the Gaza Strip. To this must be added the exemplary and decisive contribution of the anonymous fighters of the ISA and ISA Director Yuval Diskin.

This is the time to translate our accomplishments into attaining our goals. Israel is nearing the goals that it set for itself; however, further patience, determination and effort are necessary in order to achieve those goals in a way that will change the security reality in the south, so that our citizens will be able to feel long-term security and stability. We must not, at the last minute, lose what has been achieved in an unprecedented national effort that restored the spirit of unity to the nation. The Israeli public, especially the residents of the south, have the requisite patience and willingness - so does the Government!"