By Barak Ravid Haaretz 10 February 2008 www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/952729.html

"I am fending off heavy pressure to launch a major ground operation in Gaza,
and thus in the meantime am making do with civilian sanctions in order not
to bring about an escalation." These were Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's words
to Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik last Wednesday during her
official visit here. Their meeting became a genuine diplomatic embarrassment
when the two began arguing over a number of issues, beginning with the Gaza
situation.

At one point Olmert began responding sarcastically to Plassnik's questions.
Sources in her entourage called their dialogue "harsh and very tense." A
source in the Austrian Embassy in Tel Aviv said in a response, "The foreign
minister and the prime minister discussed their differences of opinion in a
frank manner." The Prime Minister's Bureau, in contrast, issued a short,
laconic statement that gave no hint of the meeting's content.

Plassnik expressed concern about the situation in Gaza in light of Israeli
sanctions, telling Olmert that a humanitarian crisis there must be avoided.

"Israel has no intention of causing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza," Olmert
responded. He said the hope was that the sanctions would bring about an end
to Qassam missiles being fired from the Strip into Israel and make an
Israeli military operation unnecessary.

"The civilian sanctions hurt only the people of Gaza, not the terror
organizations," Plassnik told Olmert. She even hinted that Israel must hold
talks with Hamas, noting, "The military option alone against Hamas will not
solve everything."

Olmert and the Austrian foreign minister also argued over the pace of the
negotiations between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "You
must move more quickly on the peace talks," Plassnik said. "Israel must meet
its obligations as set out in the first stage of the road map, and dismantle
outposts. So far there has been little progress here."

Olmert responded: "The Palestinians haven't done anything yet, either. The
terror attack this morning [in Dimona - B.R.] only proves that the
Palestinian Authority does not control the ground or the terror
organizations. From my perspective, Israel's security is top priority."

But the joke is Olmert telling the Prime Minister that Israel's security is a top priority, well then act like it and turn the IDF loose.