Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I just want to say a few words about the implications what is about to happen in Gaza, by all appearances. It appears the Israeli Defense Forces are about to invade Gaza. They have laid down a sort of zone for clearance by at least half of the people of Gaza, which has 2.2 million people, and they want them to move south. What happens when they move into that area? Will the Israeli Defense Forces destroy it? Will Hamas be there to fight them, or will Hamas do what it is best at, which is hiding among civilians and going south with them? What happens when they eventually do catch up with the capacity to confront Hamas by whatever means? Are they going to separate the men from the women and children and go through all the men they find and ask if they are a Hamas supporter or in Hamas? Are they going to take out those people and kill them or are they going to bring them back to Israel as prisoners? Where does this end?

I cannot see how moving the people of Gaza south across the River Wadi al-Far'a into another zone is going to bring anything to a conclusion. All that is going to do is create more and more suffering. What about the people of Gaza who stay north of that line? Are they fair game? Are they to be presumed to be combatants? Are they presumed to be Hamas supporters? Are they to be shot on sight? Are their homes to be annihilated? Where does this all lead? What does Israel think it can do? It is very easy to say "We will smash Hamas" but it is a bit like saying - I hope the analogy is not inappropriate - that we will smash the IRA by moving into west Belfast, rounding up the population and urging them to flee south towards Newry or something. It does not work in historical terms. It is a forlorn proposal.

It is for that reason of the absolute futility of it, not to mention the cruelty of what would be involved, that I think we are absolutely justified in saying "Stop, do not invade". They are not going to rescue the hostages, by the way. I would venture to suggest that unless I am very wrong, they will be the first to die the worse it gets for Hamas. What are the plans Binyamin Netanyahu and his cronies, who include extremists, have for Gaza? One of their defence officials said, and this shocked me, that he believed the people of Gaza will be living in a tent city from now on. How many apartment blocks do they want to destroy? How many schools do they want to destroy? When will they allow the people of Gaza to come back up to the piles of rubble they have made? Do they want to occupy the place permanently? None of these questions has been answered but they are questions we must all address. The obvious inference from all of this is that if you do not address those questions and do not clearly state what you are going to do, this is effectively a mass punishment and an operation of retribution.

I have absolutely no problem with acknowledging that what happened last Saturday week was absolutely inexcusable, absolutely horrific and absolutely barbarous, but as I said in The Irish Timestoday, it was all intended to bring this about. I am surprised that the western allies do not see the disaster that is unfolding and see that any further land invasion of Gaza will suffer from all the shortcomings I have just mentioned and raises profound questions for the future of that region and, indeed, for the future of world peace. This polarisation of opinion whereby you are on one side or the other is wrong. I support the right of the Israeli people to live in security behind the borders of 1967. I support UN Resolution 242. I believe that a peaceful two-state solution can be accommodated.I do not think Hamas wants a two-state solution, by the way, or any of that, but one cannot blame the people of Gaza for what Hamas has done. What is being done now is cruel and cries out to heaven to say stop and to ask where this is going, how it can succeed and how it can do anything except kill tens of thousands more people and destroy all the hopes of the Palestinian people. It must stop.