Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I offer my condolences to everybody who has died in this horrendous war. In particular, I offer condolences to the families of Kim Damti and Emily Hand. It is important, as has been said, that we do not forget our peacekeepers in the Middle East, who are doing a hugely difficult and important job at great risk, as well as aid workers and diplomats, and all the other people trying to move forward in a peaceful way.

The problem with this issue is that the history of the past 100 years has been a botched history of wrong actions. A very clumsy arrangement has been left in that part of the Middle East. We have a challenge now to set about trying to deal with the enormously difficult issues there.

We know the attack by Hamas was wrong and the response by Israel was wrong. However, condemnation is the easy part. Saying that things are wrong is the easy part. How to move forward is always the challenge. I have heard many references in recent weeks to the rules of war, as if there was a clean way of fighting a war in the modern world or a war in which the real sufferers are not mainly civilians, as they are in all wars nowadays. War only leads to more war. I join all those calling on both sides to stop.

I often think of one person in our country's recent history, somebody who served in the Upper House.

At the moment of greatest grief, he could have called out for vengeance, but he called out for talk and talk with everybody, including the leaders of the IRA at the time. That was Gordon Wilson. In my view, he opened doors for many people who followed and brought a settlement that has largely been successful. What we must encourage and hope is that some leaders arise on both sides to say enough is enough and that we must stop killing each other. As the saying goes, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth only makes the whole world blind." In this case, however, it just kills everybody on both sides, mainly innocent people. It only creates the sense of victimhood on each side that drives the next round of violence.

I have heard Israel talk about annihilating Hamas. First of all, to do that would be totally barbaric in terms of what they would have to do with civilians on the ground. Even supposing they did that, however, can they not see that the 13- and 14-year-olds would form the new Hamas with vengeance in their minds in four or five years' time, and that war only begets war?

This country, particularly with our history, has to say that the only way forward is peace. It is not the majority view at the moment, but we still should be that lone voice because often in history, the lone voice becomes the majority voice if it repeats the right message often enough.

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