H.E. Mr. Boaz Modai:

The Deputy is right. It surprises us too that the whole world is very worried about this decision on beginning the bureaucratic process of calling a piece of land "state land" and that only Israel is not. However, the Deputy knows Israelis a little bit and he knows that they agree about nothing. One can say that about Jews in general; we do not agree about everything. We say that we could have millions of prime ministers because everybody knows better than Mr. Netanyahu what Government policy should be. However, 95% of the Jewish population supported the operation in Gaza. That could not be seen from the outside. It could not be seen from Dublin, Paris or New York. Why is that? It is because people in Israel felt they were in a war for their survival. That was the feeling. I know it is difficult to explain that. I spoke on my flight back from Israel to an Irish citizen whom I had never met before. We spoke about it and he said "I now understand you much better than I ever did." For just three days, he heard the sirens and experienced the running to the shelter. This is the case.

When it comes to Molly Malone, the Deputy is right to say we are speaking about a very serious issue. We took that down after a few hours because somebody, who happens to be a friend of the embassy, said he thought it was not the right place. We said "You know, it is not a must," and we took it off. What we were trying to say, which a lot of people did not understand, and what I can say now openly without hiding anything, was actually said by the King of Saudi Arabia, who invited all the ambassadors serving in Riyadh to a meeting a few days ago. He told them the West should do something about Islamic State because it is a terrorist organisation that has no limits. Today, it is here. Within a month, it will get to Europe and within another month it is in the United States. This is what we were trying to say. If you do not help us oppose the terrorists of Hamas, it will be something else next time. There is no difference between Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda and ISIS. They are all the same, with the same way of thinking and similar methods. It does not matter if one beheads someone or shoots him in the head in the middle of the street.

In some countries around the world, it was well understood that the Arab Spring changed people's understanding, making them realise it is not Israel or even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that makes the Middle East tremble that way. Things that happened in Syria had nothing to do with Israel. What happened in Yemen, Libya and Iraq had nothing to do with Israel or the Palestinians. It still happened, because the region is getting more and more radical. When Prime Minister Netanyahu has to make his decisions or even think about the dialogue with the Palestinians, he cannot focus, as the media here sometimes does, only on this conflict, but must consider the broader picture. In the broader picture, Israel faces a lot of risk and threats surrounding it and it must take all of them into account. That is the difference.

I agree with the Deputy on dialogue with the enemy. As someone said, one makes peace with one's enemies, not with one's friends. However, I remind him that we had a dialogue with Yasser Arafat for years. He was considered by Israelis as the terrorist for years. He brought Palestinians into world affairs.

His organisation, the PLO, Palestine Liberation Organization, which was meant to put pressure on Israel, was created in 1964. On 1 January 1965 it had already committed its first terrorist action. This was before 1967, before Israel took the territory in what is now called an occupation. There was a little problem with this, but we did speak to Mr. Arafat, as the committee will remember. The Palestinians engaged in dialogue with Israel, some of which brought them close to signing an agreement. Ehud Barak promised 90% of the territory, while Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister in 2008, offered the Palestinians 98% of the territory, plus other concessions which, if they had been known at the time, would have put a lot of pressure on him. While he agreed to this, unfortunately, it was not enough for the Palestinian side. That could have been the opportunity, but it was missed. It was once said by an Israeli Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, that the Palestinians never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. It was proved in the past two decades that they had had many opportunities. Some in Israel already believe the Palestinians have no interest in having their own state. They prefer the situation as it is without taking responsibility. We hope Mahmoud Abbas or someone else will take the responsibility and bring the two sides closer to a peace agreement.