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PMO Denies Date Set for Abbas-PM talks, by Gil Hoffman (Jerusalem Post)
Excerpts;
On Thursday night, Olmert told Kadima activists at the party’s Petah Tikva headquarters that he expected to take diplomatic steps with the Palestinians in the upcoming year.
Speaking to a crowd of hundreds of activists, Olmert said he was “doing everything possible to bring about a diplomatic horizon.” He said he would not maintain the status quo on the Palestinian issue.
Vice Premier Shimon Peres told the crowd that the Kassam rockets cannot be stopped. He said that had former prime minister Ariel Sharon been conscious, he would have said, as he did before, that people should keep calm and “stop crying and whining about the rocket attacks.”
“There will be more Kassams and we cannot stop all of them at once,” Peres said. “We are operating technically and militarily and I don’t think we should be arguing about whether or not to fire back.”
Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu called upon Olmert to end Israel’s policies of restraint in response to the Palestinian rockets fired upon Sderot. Speaking at a rally in Or Yehuda sponsored by Likud MK Yuval Steinitz, Netanyahu said it was time for Olmert to give the IDF free reign to fire back in the Gaza Strip.
“The government should not allow the Palestinians to continue firing Kassam rockets at Israel,” Netanyahu told a crowd of some 800 Likud activists. “The IDF should be allowed to operate in a fundamental manner to remove the missile threat from the people of Sderot and the Western Negev.”
Netanyahu and Steinitz compared the Likud to the Maccabees, saying that the party was “the few up against the many.”
The Likud leader complained that the public had not listened to his warnings about the security situation. “The nation has strength but it lacks leadership,” Netanyahu said. “There is no government in Israel…”
Editorial Comment;
A few days ago, this author asked a question; Which Leader Will Bring Israel to Take Responsibility Instead of Depending upon the Nations for Her Security??
Let’s now ask this in a different way; Which leader and leadership feeds the people of Israel a constant dose of the defeatist, brainwashing words “can’t” or “cannot?”
Let’s look at what Shimon Peres said again;
“‘Vice Premier Shimon Peres told the crowd that the Kassam rockets cannot be stopped. He said that had former prime minister Ariel Sharon been conscious, he would have said, as he did before, that people should keep calm and ‘stop crying and whining about the rocket attacks.'”
Whether Sharon said it, or Peres said it or Olmert says it, or Bibi for that matter, and whatever personal corruptions, graft and other improprieties Olmert and the others hide by saying it, or whatever lusts for continued power they crave; Olmert and company lightly dismiss the Kassam blitz and bombardment at the expense of the security, psyche and well-being of the Jewish People.
Isn’t it time for new, innocent, uncorrupted leaders and leadership to take over? Isn’t it time for new leaders, unencumbered by Hamulas and other interest peddling and schemes, who will seriously undertake the sacred obligation toward the security and well-being of the Jewish people which the Sharon-Olmert-Peretz-Peres Regime has abrogated? Isn’t it time for leaders and leader for whom the Jewish people comes first and foremost and who are uncorrupted by personal cravings for power, influence and personal empire building? Isn’t it time for new leaders and leadership who will do whatever is necessary to remove missile threats, liberate Jonathan Pollard, restore the IDF to it’s former status and credibility, restore the Jews to their communities in Gush Katif and the Shomron and expunge any concepts of convergence or expulsion from the Israeli Jewish consciousness? MB