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G8: 2006 Summit

My Lords, we should not be surprised that terrorism is used in the Middle East. After all, Israel was established by terror, by the blowing up of Deir Yassin, by the hanging of British sergeants in an orange grove in Beersheba, and by the Stern gang riding through Jaffa saying to the Arabs, ““You must all leave with the British””. Two million Arabs have been removed from Palestine. Not surprisingly, they are cross about it. We must understand what drives people. I am not making a judgment; I am stating historical fact. Unfortunately, that injustice of 2 million Arabs being asked to leave has not been addressed for 60 years. Something has to be done about it. A much less intransigent territorial dispute, that between Germany and France over Alsace-Lorraine, took place between 1685, when the French nicked it, and 1945, when the Germans finally gave up wanting it back. That was a minor dispute compared with what is going on in the Middle East. We must be less sloppy about using the word ““terrorism””. One man’s terrorism is another man’s freedom fight. If you see that terrorism has worked in the other guy’s hands, you are likely to use it yourself. I make no moral judgment, but draw the House’s attention to the historical facts.