My email inbox has registered another spike in correspondence over the situation in the Middle East.
If largely falls into two categories. First, those for whom Israel can do no wrong. Including some evangelical Christians who share a bizarre (and quite unscriptural) belief that Jesus will not return until ancient boundaries of Israel are fully restored.
Second, those who believe that Palestinian violence is entirely justified by Israeli intransigence, and many of whom come dangerously close to suggesting that the very existence of Israel is the source of the problem.
Though my correspondence does not reflect it, my prejudice is that a majority of my constituents share my own ability to see it from both sides.
When, as the UK minister responsible for our Palestinian outreach, I challenged the Government of Israel on what I considered to be their disastrous stewardship of Occupied Territories (which included the bulldozing of schools paid for by UK taxpayers), I believed their policy to be a calculated effort to prevent the two-state solution which was the very objective of our own policy. When I put this to Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister and Chief Negotiator, our meeting ended abruptly.
Equally, over the years, we have seen the rare opportunities for a long-term settlement squandered by aspects the Palestinian leadership. The resort to terrorism has only reaped greater suffering on their own people and set back negotiation further.
When Hamas launched their pogrom last October they could have been in no doubt about the whirlwind that they would reap. Hamas now claims that their objective was to re-energize the prospect of negotiations. I believe they knew exactly the destruction that would follow and that their real purpose was to radicalise a new generation. Something in which Israel appears to be obliging them.
Tens of thousands may have to die before either side is ready to make the level of compromise necessary for peace.
Sir Desmond Swayne TD
