Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are seeing a total tragedy unfolding before our eyes. We can see the pain every night on our screens and the fear and anguish in the faces of mothers in particular. It is there for all of us to see. The reality is that the decision by Hamas was a cold, calculated assault designed to kill citizens and create the sort of reaction we have seen. It was carefully planned. It was not the reaction to some individual incident. It was carefully planned and equipped to an extraordinary level, and its target was to see the hope of the emergence of the seeds of some sort of settlement in the Middle East destroyed. It is bent on the destruction of Israel and that is the sad reality we face.

Equally, however, the actions of Israel to cut energy, water and humanitarian aid is designed in my view to drive the citizens further and further into the hands of those like Hamas who have led them in an appalling way down a blind alley. There is sadly a drive for binary politics in both Gaza and Israel, which is not serving the future of a peaceful settlement well.

Indeed, it was an Israeli writer who talked about thinking fast and thinking slow. Thinking fast is this reactive thing one does on the spur of the moment without thinking out the consequences, while thinking slow is about looking down the road. As Deputy Ó Cuív said, the reality is that for every terrorist taken out today, another one will be created if there is not respect for what has to be achieved in the long term. What we need to do in my view is try to build out that centre in politics, which is all too lacking in both Israel and Palestine at the moment.

The first measure to do that is to have a genuine attempt to understand both sides and the fears they hold. It is not good enough to express an understanding of just one side. We have to understand both. Maybe then we could see the sort of reaction I saw on television on the BBC the other night. A mother who lost her child at that music festival said that what she wanted was healing and not revenge. It is people like that we need to seek to build the future upon. We need to give space for that to happen. The very balanced way in which the Irish Government has approached this, by not siding on one side or the other and insisting on standards, is the way we can best contribute. I commend both the Tánaiste and Taoiseach, and commend the careful approach they have taken in a really difficult situation.

See this speech in context