Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I want to be entirely constructive for a number of reasons, first, because this motion is of such importance nobody should play politics with it in any way, and I would not dream of doing that, and, second, I have considerable regard for the Minister's efforts in this area and am aware of the considerable influence he has, at least for the next six months in particular.

I hope an attempt will be made to persuade some of those in Israel, who may be aware of what is happening in countries like ours, that some of their responses to what is being said are poorly thought out and serve no purpose. If I was an Israeli and was aware of Irish politics, I would have grave cause for concern when a motion is put to us in the name of my good friend, Senator Norris, because Senator Norris was the best friend Israel had in this House, and he remains its best friend. Those who represent Israel here ought to be aware that what is happening there, however horrified they may be by what is done to them by terrorism, is losing them the unqualified sympathy of their friends.

Some 35 years ago I was at a debate in UCD in which somebody who is now quite close to this Government moved a motion of support for the struggles of the Palestinian people. I opposed it, as I believe most Irish people would have done then because we all started out — those of us who were born shortly after the war and as we learnt about the war — with an instinctive support for Israel because of what Senator Hayes spoke about earlier. I was forced to reverse my position because the more I learned, the more unhappy I became.

I visited the occupied territories in the 1980s and listened to people there at a time when there was no serious terrorism campaign controlled by any institution because there were no governing institutions in the occupied territories then. Even then, the Israeli response was disproportionate and finally counterproductive.

It is worth repeating that military force can silence a problem but it never solves it. Even if Israel managed by military means to stop all terrorist activity, the scale of the hurt it would impose on a whole generation of young people in Palestine would mean that in some way or other the issue would arise again. The Minister is right. It is only by dialogue and agreement that a solution can be reached.

It is important to remember that the Palestinian Authority is no longer a governing authority. The level of military destruction and fracturing of its territory means the authority is barely able to keep itself in existence. To suggest it has the capacity to suppress the activities of other armed elements in the territories is to grossly over simplify it. The only way we will succeed and contribute to bringing about a peaceful resolution is by using the weapons of persuasion. Suicide bombing, apart from being morally reprehensible, is the most politically damaging thing that could be done to the cause of the Palestinian people. It needs to be stated also that a disproportionate military response which, to be generous, shows an indifference to the safety of civilians and, in particular, an indifference to the safety of children, is doing Israel and its number one ally no good in the eyes of the peoples of western Europe. The opinion poll last year, which showed that most Europeans thought the single biggest threat to world security was Israel, produced a classically superficial response, namely, that it showed anti-Semitism is alive and well in Europe again. This has got nothing to do with anti-Semitism. The response of the people I know, ordinary decent people in this country, would be the same whatever the religious or ethnic origins of the Government of Israel. If anything, the history of anti-Semitism has diluted and delayed the response that is now becoming visible. People were aware of this accusation and were slow to react because of what had happened, as described by Senator Hayes. However, people will not stand back any longer. Good people in the United States saw what happened to Rachel Corrie and it changed their thinking. Instead of an honest admission that it was in some way a wrongful act — I am not saying we wanted somebody to admit it was deliberate — what we got was a deliberate obfuscation and pretence that nobody did anything wrong in the killing of Rachel Corrie. That is reverberating through the United States and Europe. Rachel Corrie will become a symbol of the moment when public opinion shifted. It is in Israel's interest to listen carefully to moderate, balanced voices, such as our Minister for Foreign Affairs.

This is not to suggest for a second that the Palestinians do not have obligations. In any situation like this the most powerful in terms of military force, those with the strongest allies are those from whom we are entitled to expect the most sophisticated response. We are entitled to expect something more sophisticated from Israel than the wall the Minister has so well described and so eloquently denounced. What we are entitled to expect from them is balance and a realisation that there is no future for Israel as a peaceful state if it believes the solution to the current crisis is entirely or overwhelmingly based on military force.