From crisis to open warfare

I never got to meet Yasser Arafat. And I regret that, especially given the way he was treated towards the end of his life. I talked to him by telephone: once when he was in Camp David, and on another occasion when he was under siege in his compound in the West Bank. We put together plans for me to visit Palestine on a few occasions, but the demands of the process here at home meant that each trip had to be aborted because it coincided with some crisis or other in the Irish peace process or in the Middle East.

After his death, I felt in some way that I had let him down. And I resolved to make a visit as soon as possible. Since then I have talked also to President Abbas by telephone and Sinn Féin's international department is currently engaged in an effort to arrange a visit in the next few months to Israel and Palestine.

These visits take a long time to put together and, since the initial invite by President Mahmoud Abbas, the political scene in the region has changed significantly with the election of Hamas. The resulting hostile reaction of the Israelis, the EU and the US to this, the withdrawal of financial support to the Palestinian government and the violence – including the deaths of scores of Palestinians in Israeli attacks in Gaza and elsewhere and the subsequent kidnapping of an Israeli soldier – has seen the region lurch from crisis to open warfare, with Israel invading Gaza and destroying much of its limited infrastructure.

Since the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, the situation has escalated dreadfully, with over 200 civilians killed in Israeli bomb attacks in Lebanon and over 20 Israeli civilians also killed. This situation seems destined to worsen for as long as the international community refuses to take a principled stand.

What does that mean? It means the international community asserting and defending and upholding the primacy of democracy and working together to pursue this objective. It means upholding the democratic right of people to have control over the decisions which affect their lives. It requires the free co-operation of free peoples, working together as political equals. In other words, the exact opposite of what we see at this time in the Middle East.

There, the big powers behave like old-style imperialists ignoring the right of people to elect representatives of their choice. The UN clearly has the potential to be more effective than it is. The major powers have ignored the UN and pushed a limited agenda based on big security issues and what they describe as the "war against terrorism". They have sidelined the general assembly of the UN and pushed issues into the Security Council where they have a veto. They have actively undermined the efforts of the UN.

President Bush has consistently given support to Israel and, in recent days, Washington has used its veto to obstruct action by the UN Security Council. So not only has there not been a halt to hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinians, including the mass arrests of elected Palestinian politicians, there have also been escalating attacks in Lebanon in contravention of international law. The peace process in the Middle East stands in ruins and the period ahead could see an escalating crisis right across that region.

So what to do about all of this? All international focus should be on getting a cessation of all military activities and moving on into a comprehensive and inclusive settlement. Both the USA and British governments, as well as the European Union, need to support that position. That is what will eventually have to happen anyway if sense is to made of the mess that is now deepening. So why not now?

The Irish government can play a constructive role in this by working with other states towards that objective. It has to be based on the rights of the people of Palestine and the people of Israel to live in mutual respect and peaceful co-existence. The cutting off of aid or the refusal to recognise democratically elected governments, or the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, should not be any part of this.

For some time there has been a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Anyone who visits there comes back distressed by the poverty and the third-world conditions. Recent attacks on essential services like electricity, water and sewage, and the lack of food, have made a dreadful situation even worse. Now this policy is being shifted to the Lebanon. It may be that elements in the more powerful western states believe that it is in their interests to allow the Israelis to militarily defeat Hezbollah. I don't know if that is possible.

The Irish experience tells us that political problems require political solutions. And so with the Middle East. A settlement there is long overdue. It cannot happen without the active involvement of the international community.