Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and wish him well in his post, including his role in Northern Ireland matters. I thank the various organisations and individuals who submitted information to Members in advance of this debate. I begin by pointing out that Israel's GDP per head is US$42,000 while the Palestinian figure is US$2,431. That is a differential of 17:1 and, in my view, it holds the key to this conflict. Can the ingenuity, enterprise and talents that have made Israel such a prosperous country be the growth engine for the rest of the region? Certainly, it is unsustainable to have people living side by side with such massive income differentials.

I do not support the calls by some for the expulsion of Ambassador Boaz Modai, to whom I wrote last April expressing my concern at his opposition to proposals for joint government for Palestine. In January 2006, the Palestinian Authority, at the urging of George W. Bush's Administration and with the grudging support of the Israelis, held elections in Gaza and the West Bank. To the surprise of some, Hamas won a majority of seats in those elections. One might say that Hamas is in the same situation as Sinn Féin was as it evolved into a political party. Israel must recognise the reality that Hamas was democratically elected.

The ambassador said in his letter to Senators yesterday: "In none of the exchanges have I heard anyone propose a realistic alternative to the current policy of Israel." I hope a copy of the Official Report will make its way to President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu showing the alternatives we are proposing today to what is an unsustainable situation. The ambassador also said, in a statement issued yesterday: "Since 2007, time and time again President Abbas has rejected generous offers of peace with Israel." I wonder what these generous offers were. It is a view held by many that in his defining speech at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Bar-Ilan University on 14 July 2009, Mr. Netanyahu scuppered the two-state solution by his demands for full demilitarisation of the Palestinian state - that is, no army, no rockets, no missiles and no control of its airspace - Jerusalem to be undivided Israeli territory and Palestinians to recognise Israel as the Jewish national state. In addition, Mr. Netanyahu rejected a right of return for Palestinian refugees, saying that any demand for their resettlement within Israel would undermine the country's status. He further rejected putting a halt to settlement building on the West Bank. In effect, the two-state solution has been killed off by Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza.