Following are excerpts from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting today:

 "A week has passed since we ceased firing in the Gaza Strip.  Last Thursday (22.1.09), I toured Sderot and I discovered a new place and a different atmosphere.  I am full of hope that the atmosphere and the blessed quiet that characterized Sderot last Thursday, and which were apparent on the faces of young and old alike, will characterize the residents of the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip and the cities that were in rocket and missile range over the past month.  Israel embarked on Operation Cast Lead not as a first option but as a last resort, after we tried all other ways and options to bring quiet to the communities in the south.

The terrorist organizations, led by Hamas, were perhaps mistaken in believing that the State of Israel would learn to live with this firing without responding and now, after the operation, these organizations are trying to close accounts with the State of Israel.  The international legal arena is one of the main arenas in which they are trying to hurt Israel and strike at its soldiers and commanders.  With the typical moral acrobatics, these organizations and their supporters are trying to turn the attacker into the attacked and vice-versa.  The undeniable truth is that for eight years, hundreds of thousands of residents of the State of Israel, who live in the south, were the unceasing targets of brutal, deliberate and planned rocket fire that was intentionally designed to hit civilians, including children and their parents, not soldiers and military installations.  Now, as a result of unavoidable self-defense actions during which – to our regret – civilians were also hit, they are trying to turn what happened on its face and stick IDF soldiers and commanders – and not those who initiated the terrorism and turned it into a way of life against the residents of the State of Israel for many years – with the responsibility for this.  The State of Israel did everything in order to avoid hitting civilians.  I do not know of any military that is more moral, fair and sensitive to civilians' lives, than the IDF.  Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi and I, and others who closely monitored the fighting, can attest to many instances in which IDF soldiers and their commanders refrained from carrying out actions or diverted bombs lest innocents among the enemy be hit.  This was also done when terrorists that threatened our soldiers were intentionally shooting at them from among civilian population concentrations and were using them as human shields against an Israeli response.  This has been the policy of Hamas and the other terrorist organizations over the years – to fight to the last drop of Gaza civilians' blood and strike at them.

Last Thursday, I appointed Justice Minister Prof. Daniel Friedmann to chair an interministerial team to coordinate the State of Israel's activity to provide a legal defense for those who took part in the military operation.  The State of Israel will fully back those who acted on its behalf.  Minister Friedmann – along with senior civil-service jurists, international and military law experts – will formulate answers to possible questions regarding IDF operations, which the self-righteous are liable to raise concerning the character of the Israeli fighting and its results.  The soldiers and commanders who were sent on missions in Gaza must know that they are safe from various tribunals and that the State of Israel will assist them on this issue and defend them just as they bodily defended us during Operation Cast Lead.

The National Insurance Institute will release its annual poverty report today.  The report indicates both an absolute and a relative drop in poverty in Israel.  Simply put, there are fewer poor in the State of Israel, both in relation to population increase and in the number of people living below the poverty line.  After years in which we became accustomed to reports that would indicate an increase in poverty, we are seeing an opposite trend that is the unavoidable result of Government policy… The numbers still indicate that there are many poor in the State of Israel and there is much that still needs to be done.  The direction has been defined and the trend is clear.  The improvement is beginning to find expression and all those involved in the work must continue.

On January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the world will mark International Holocaust Commemoration Day.  It is no small thing that millions of people around the world will bow their heads out of special respect and remembrance for the victims of the awful Holocaust, the main target of which was the Jewish People.  A few years ago, we still heard voices of denial and ignorance.  Now, it seems to me that the entire world is united in a sense of responsibility to mark this day, the day on which the entire world honors the memory of the Holocaust and its victims, and especially learns the lessons of the Holocaust not just for the Jewish People but for the entire world.  Yad Vashem Council Chairman Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and Yad Vashem Board of Directors Chairman Avner Shalev, and Minister Yitzhak Herzog, who is responsible for Diaspora affairs and the struggle against anti-Semitism, will brief us."

Prime Minister Olmert also discussed procedures for ensuring a smooth transition to the government that will be formed after the upcoming elections.