Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I see. I think we are all of one mind that the first imperative, as I said repeatedly in my contribution, is to have a ceasefire to stop the killing right now. I am interested in hearing the Minister of State's view on that.

It is clear the Taoiseach's efforts at the European Council to achieve a consensus calling for a ceasefire from the EU 27 have not worked. There are strongly held views in other countries. It is well and good for us to have a strongly held view and demand that others share that view. However, if they do not share it, no more than we accept their point of view, they are not accepting our point of view. The question then, in the absence of such consensus, which was laid bare by the General Assembly vote when 15 of the 27 EU member states abstained and some voted against the Jordanian resolution, is what actions are open to us?

Peace will come. Peace has to come and all wars end. The issue is how many innocent people will die before we reach that point. We need to have an impetus immediately - the French have made some efforts in this regard - to have a viable two-state solution reinstated and to build whatever world consensus we can to join whatever nations agree with us. The majority of nations in the United Nations certainly agree with us that we must have a viable Palestinian state and a viable and safe Israel if we are ever going to have peace in that part of the world. Will this Government, specifically the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, lead that initiative to seek to broker the potential for an ultimate solution to this crisis? That is the only thing that can halt the ongoing and ever-recurring wars we are witnessing. What does the Minister of State believe is the best thing we can do right now to bring about a ceasefire, bring humanitarian relief to the people of Gaza and, at the same time, stop what is now the ethnic cleansing of the occupied territories taking place in parallel with the assault on Gaza? Will he be frank and tell us what are the best steps available to us? We are all looking on in horror; we can decry it but are there concrete steps we can take?

I disagree with my friend and colleague, Deputy Ó Murchú, that this is like South Africa. This is potentially much bigger in that the escalation of war with the involvement of Hezbollah and all the neighbouring states could be absolutely catastrophic. We need to ensure that does not happen.

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