Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni addressed the Knesset today on the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip, and had this to say:

Israel has done everything possible to avoid the moment at which it would be forced to take action, but that moment finally came.  We will make the most of it, in order to change the equation.

Israel is waging a struggle, but this struggle is not Israel’s alone.  Israel is standing on the frontlines of the Western world’s war against terror, and we expect support for doing the right thing and fighting the war of the entire free world.

It is true:  the pictures broadcast on television all over the world are provoking harsh public opinion against Israel.  Unfortunately, some of the world’s decision makers are swayed by public opinion and the media, even though they know what is true and what is not, and how they would act in a similar situation.

From this podium, I call upon the world’s leaders, and particularly those from the Arab world – those who understand that the threat does not come from Israel but from the radical elements in the world, headed by Iran; those who know what Hamas really is; those who know that Hamas is a problem for the entire Palestinian people and not just Israel’s problem. . . . They know that the road to peace passes through the war on terror, extremism, hate and incitement, which means a war against Hamas and those like Hamas.

Although Israel has not yet made its ultimate strategic objective clear, it is hard to see, given those remarks, that an acceptable outcome would be simply a new ceasefire, or a Lebanon-type resolution where an international force protects Hamas while it rearms.