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G8 Summit

It is clear that there was much constructive work done at the G8 in relation to Africa, the Doha round and energy, but it was inevitable, as today has already demonstrated, that the concentration would be on the middle east. We can agree that the recent events constitute a threat to the stability of the whole region. We can also agree that we will be able to rely on the professionalism of our armed forces to effect the necessary evacuation of British citizens. However, will the Government, on Thursday in New York, press for the Security Council to call for an unconditional and immediate ceasefire? How will it be possible to insert an international force unless there is a ceasefire? Such a force could hardly fight its way in. We must all accept that the indiscriminate firing of rockets and missiles into Israel by Hezbollah is unacceptable, but so too is the targeted and systematic destruction of the infrastructure of Lebanon. What would happen if the Lebanese Government, already weakened, were to fall? What, indeed, will happen if the prediction of the Israeli Chief of Staff—that Lebanon will go back to what it was 20 years ago—comes about? Who will fill the vacuum that will be caused as a result? How will that be in the interests of long-term stability and peace in the region? We must all accept that Israel has a moral and a legal right to live in peace within recognised and secure borders, but does the Prime Minister accept that that right does not legitimise action that is disproportionate and amounts to collective punishment, both in Lebanon and in Gaza?