Dan Boyle (Green Party)

Today's motion was moved in a spirit of consensus and countersigned by leaders of the various groups. However, it is important that the impression does not go out that the whole House thinks collectively on this just because the attitude of the Government is being expressed in the debate. Within the country there are people with a different perspective on events in the Middle East.

We must acknowledge that Israel is a democracy, although a somewhat diminished democracy since its recent election. It is the only democracy in that part of the world and the real tragedy is that it has diminished its moral standing through its actions in recent times. It is a country with obvious military and technological superiority over the people with whom it shares the region. While it has had a tragic history since its foundation in the late 1940s, it sees Israelis as a people under siege. A mirror image has also been created, of Israel as a country that has lived in a constant state of belligerence that has blinded it from moral principles that should apply to a democratic state with obvious advantages in that part of the world.

The actions in Gaza were a cynical exercise, conducted with at least some type of tacit approval from Israel's patron state in the form of the United States, being conducted in the lamest period of a lame duck presidency and only stopped on the night of the inauguration of a new president. It is obvious this was a well-thought out, prepared move to settle scores and on those grounds, it cannot be politically justified.

It is also the case that the political changes have mirrored the constant state of belligerence in which it has wrapped itself. The recent election results in Israel were profoundly depressing. It is a country that seems to have lost any semblance of a progressive political force, where the once dominant Labour Party that founded the State of Israel and introduced principles of collective farming in the form of kibbutz, is now reduced to fourth place, behind three right-wing parties, where attempts were made within the political system to bar Arab political parties from participating in the election, but where, at the least, the judicial system sees through such naked political posturing.

I hope whatever international pressure possible is put on the new Administration in Israel, but we are now faced with an Israeli Prime Minister who has shown himself to be immune to such pressure in the past. I hope there can be a reconsideration of events in the region. I do not see a change occurring in the short term whereby Israel will lose its military and technological advantage. I hope an internal debate takes place within Israel on how its government's actions over the past number of years have undermined its credibility in the world. Credibility exists with regard to a continuation of the State of Israel and the promotion of democracy in the region, but always on the basis that the weapons of war cannot be used to achieve particular political ends.

Protests against Israel's actions have taken place throughout the world, including in Ireland. Elements within those protests are obviously anti-Israeli and some are anti-American and there have been actions such as the burning of Israeli flags. That type of intolerance is unacceptable. By the same token, the principle of indiscriminately firing shells and using other weapons by any group of people, from whatever territory, must be condemned in any debate. Hamas has been and is wrong in its policy of using missiles. Israel is also wrong, probably to a greater extent, because its weapons are of a higher grade and precision.

What is most upsetting about the moral position of Israel is that it chose, in presenting a public relations front during recent events in the Gaza Strip, to say it was engaged in a humane war. Israelis rang people up and sent around leaflets to warn people bombings would take place in their local communities and to warn them what buildings to go to for shelter. In our history, when we saw organisations like the Provisional IRA use such tactics, we rightly decried them as morally worthless. It makes no difference to any group of people to get notice of bombings. Being bombed is morally unacceptable and I hope that is the message that comes out from this House.

While we support the State of Israel and recognise the need for a democratic and progressive State of Israel, we cannot accept its recent actions. On those grounds, I hope a positive message of both support and appropriate condemnation goes out with regard to what we have seen in the Middle East in recent months.