Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have two minutes and I will not hang about.

I commend the Tánaiste on the great work he is doing and the Government on its mature even-handed response to this crisis in the Middle East. The good image of Ireland on the international stage is under scrutiny. In that regard, we are not well served by gratuitous comment from some Irish public figures, whether they be in Europe, Leinster House or more elevated places.

In my two minutes, I would like to put the focus on Hamas, because there has been relatively little conversation in these Houses about Hamas or Hezbollah. Many on the left could not even bring themselves to condemn the Hamas slaughter last week. Some sent mixed signals while testing the political wind. Some ticked the box in a cursory fashion before resuming their unending uninformed attacks on Israel. Many were disgusted to see people outside these gates, megaphones under their oxters, demonstrating against Israel within hours of the Hamas atrocity while the bodies of countless innocent children were still warm and while the fate of Kim Damti and others with Irish connections was still unknown. These individuals preach compassion but they showed themselves up. If anything good comes out of this chaos, it is that the people of Ireland have had their eyes opened at last to the anti-Israel narrative that besmirches the image of this country internationally creating the image, as it does, that we are outliers in Europe on the Middle East question. The supreme irony is that these people would not be allowed to protest in any Middle East country other than Israel. How ridiculous it is to see banners from LGBT groups at the anti-Israel demonstrations. If they attempted to raise such banners where Hamas and its like hold sway, they would be instantly beheaded.

What does Hamas want? We know they do not want peace. They want to destroy Israel and wipe it from the face of the earth. It was not the Israelis who unravelled the Camp David and Oslo Accords. We know in Ireland the futility of violence. We had our own Hamas in Ireland. We had the Provisional IRA here for 30 years bombing and killing women and children indiscriminately, but we had people, such as Hume and Mallon, who were prepared to stand up and bring these gunmen to their senses. Unfortunately, in the Palestinian Authority, I do not see a Mallon or Hume, but I see my party's leader here, the Tánaiste, who is certainly getting the feel of the Irish people right. If Israel makes mistakes we will criticise them, but let us not forget this holocaust of Hamas and let the left wing have the courage to be honest and speak out about it.