Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The point is that Palestine is not one homogeneous group. There are different military organisations within the Palestinian geographical area. There is Hamas and there are other jihadist organisations. They are raising the spectre. They believe in the same principle - the destruction of Israel. I only say this by way of explanation. I do not approve at all. I have my own views on proportionality and war. If we want to move this onto a political platform, we must seek to understand the motivation behind the different actors involved. Unfortunately, in more recent times this is seen through the security prism in Israel and now it has come to reality for them, in the scale and brutality of this attack. Many were decrying the fact that many in Israeli politics were arguing for increasingly stronger security and saying that we must defeat terror. They are now uppermost within Israeli politics unfortunately. However, this act has done more than anything to copper-fasten that thinking in Israeli politics which ultimately makes it far more difficult and challenging to get a resolution to this ultimately. I think that covers most of what was asked.