Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The former Minister responsible for defence, Deputy Simon Coveney, always contended that the purpose of the mission is to keep Syria and Israel apart. It has been successful in achieving that objective but the truth is that the original objective was to oversee the eventual return of the Golan Heights to Syria. Some 40 years later, the objective has not been achieved. If one wanted a more striking demonstration of that failure, one would need look no further than at the fact that the objective has been forgotten and there is no sign that the illegal occupation of the Golan Heights by Israel will ever end. The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu, recently said the Golan Heights will remain in the hands of Israel forever. Israel is not afraid to flout international law in hammering home the point.

Genie Energy, an American oil company whose main investors include Dick Cheney, Rupert Murdoch, James Woolsey, a fromer CIA director, Larry Summers, former head of the US Treasury, and a cabal of current and former US politicians, has recently been granted permission to drill in the Golan Heights, posing a massive danger to water resources in the region. This is hardly a worthwhile exercise warranting the involvement of Irish troops when we could be doing something really fruitful in Africa, in places such as Darfur, Congo and South Sudan, as argued by Mr. Ed Horgan.

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