John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

I welcome the Minister to the House. I also welcome the Government's continuing efforts to bring about dialogue between the parties in the Middle East, particularly in this region. I served three tours of duty in the area. To reinforce what Senator Mooney said, I wore the blue beret and stood beside the Palestinian people under Israeli shelling. Equally I stood side by side with Israelis in the face of Palestinian terrorist attacks. I say this because I have spoken on this subject a number of times and I am not afraid to condemn either side when appropriate.

I disagree with the Labour Party's motion, which is defective in many respects. I will return to this point momentarily but first I welcome the preamble to the motion, which notes "with alarm the deteriorating relations between Israel and the Palestinian people" and states that "violence in this situation is both morally unjustified and politically counter productive". From the tone of the motion I assume "violence" means Israeli violence and I agree that this is politically counterproductive. There are already signs on the ground in Gaza that Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade and the military wing of Hamas have buried their differences and are prepared to fight any Israeli invasion shoulder to shoulder.

This begs the question, what of Palestinian violence? The Labour Party's motion fails to identify the immediate cause of the crisis, namely, the kidnap of an Israeli soldier from within Israel's pre-1967 borders. While Senator Ryan referred to this, it is not in the motion. If the Government were foolish enough to acquiesce to Labour's demand to end the EU embargo on dealing with the Hamas-led government of Palestinian territories it would encourage further terrorist outrages.