Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the Minister to the House. I also welcome his balanced approach to the complex issue of the Middle East. I agree with him and utterly condemn the outrageous attack on a synagogue in recent times in which four rabbis died and 13 other people were injured. Let us remember that 24 children lost their fathers, a fact which is sometimes forgotten in all of the reportage on this issue.

President Abbas, who is in charge of the Palestinian Authority, condemned the terror attack. I have great respect for him and believe he is trying very hard to resolve the conflict in the Gaza Strip. In contrast, his Fatah party congratulated the two attackers on Facebook and called it a blessed operation, Palestinians in Gaza, Judea and Samaria took to the streets and celebrated the brutal murders, Palestinians served sweets and baked goods to people on the street and launched firecrackers in a display of celebrations, and the Palestinian social media has been awash with cartoons and graphics celebrating the attack and encouraging more terror. The Palestinian Arab leadership should be held responsible for inciting violence, and I say that in the context of trying to resolve this conflict in a peaceful manner. They have called for days of rage against Israel and glorified the murderers as heroic martyrs.

I have given the other side of the story and stated the reaction within Palestine and by the Palestinian state as we see it geographically. It has not been recognised by all countries as a political entity yet. I do not oppose, in principle, the recognition of the Palestinian state. That has been Ireland's position since the time of Frank Aiken or, to be more correct, Brian Lenihan senior. Ireland was the first country to do that. I am proud of that particular piece of history, and we should continue to pursue that view, but as the Minister pointed out, one must take all the conditions into account before granting recognition. I accept that many countries - Senator Barrett said 135, but I gather the figure is around 130 - have recognised the state of Palestine. The Minister said in his debate yesterday with my colleague Deputy Smith that while it was important to recognise Palestine, "it is not by any means a magic wand to resolve the conflict," and that is essentially true. However, I do not want to get sidetracked by the issue of recognition of the state of Palestine. If Ireland is going to recognise it that is fine, but it will not solve the conflict. There still a conflict even though 130 countries have already recognised the state of Palestine. Therefore, we must get back down to the basics of dialogue.

Everybody will criticise Israel, and rightly so, for the settlement expansion programme, which I think is outrageous. I remember speaking across the table at the Israelis when I visited that country a number of times some years ago. I asked them whether they had not learned the lesson of history - that we in Ireland suffered from the legacy of plantation in Ulster for 400 years. The British came in and planted settlements, bringing in people from England, over the Irish population and took their land from them, and we are living with that legacy 400 years later. At least we have peace on our island, but it is still an underlying part of what the conflict was and remains in order to completely resolve the differences between those from the Unionist tradition and the rest of the island. I have argued that with Israel, and I know the Minister himself is aware of the history of that from Ireland, so we are very well placed to be an honest broker in the context of dialogue.

I understand that we in Ireland gave €10.7 million in funding to the Palestinian people last year. Perhaps that could be used as leverage. We have talked about levering Israel, but that funding could be used as leverage with the Palestinian Authority to encourage it to renounce incitement of violence against Israel and the Jewish people, which inevitably leads to the cold-blooded murder of Jews. Hamas still has it in its charter. People can hide it all they want, but those are the people that are proposing that all the right is on the Palestinian side and all the wrong is on the Israeli side. It is still stated in the Hamas charter that not only does it want the extinction of the State of Israel, but it wants the extinction of all Jews.

What about the Arab states surrounding Israel and Palestine, many of whom are paying lip service to the Palestinian cause? How much money are they putting into the reconstruction of Gaza? How many people are question the attitude they have towards the Palestinian refugees in their own countries, whom they treat as second class citizens? There are questions also to be asked of the Arab states that provide so-called support for the Palestinian cause. Let them put the their money where their mouths are. Why should it always be those countries that are neutral that are expected to put equal pressure on the Israelis to resolve the conflict? People sometimes forget that there are two countries involved in this conflict - the Israeli State and the Palestinians. If recognition of the Palestinian state means that we would move one inch further towards a peaceful solution, I will be out celebrating on the streets and saying "That was a good day when we recognised Palestine, because it is going to resolve the conflict, and we are never again going to see what happened in Gaza last summer." What happened in Gaza will Inevitably be repeated at some point because of the massive superior military power of the Israelis.

If one was living in Israel during the period of the Gaza invasion, one would have experienced the fact that 2,500 missiles were sent across into Israeli territory. But for the efficiency of the Iron Dome defence system, there would have been a mini-massacre in the State of Israel. I would not like to be living in the State of Israel, having to go down into a bunker every few hours, not knowing whether the missiles would get through the Iron Dome system and maybe land in my back garden, killing my family. I would not like to live in an environment in which all of the states around me were so hostile to my very existence that I could do nothing else but arm myself for protection.

Of course the Israelis are to be criticised. I will be the first to do it. What Israel did last summer in Gaza is indescribably horrific. I would hate to have been in the Gaza Strip during that period, trying to protect my family. Let us remember all of the children who died unnecessarily and all of the attacks on UN protected buildings. I have always argued that there are two sides to this conflict and there is no such thing as one side being right and the other side being wrong. The current Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade fully understands that, and I hope he will, through the European Union, adopt a particular approach. If it means having to introduce sanctions against products from the settlements, he should do it, if it is going to bring Israel a little further down the road to dialogue. The Palestinian side has a responsibility too. The Israelis are open to dialogue right now and have been at any time. There is no question that the Palestinians are against dialogue. It is about trying to get both sides to the table, putting aside certain baggage, as happened in the peace talks here on this island. That historical baggage put aside, they must look to the future - a future in which the children of both states can live in peace.