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Gaza

I am, and I am proud to be, the chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel. The hon. Member for Bradford, West (Mr. Singh) said that Hamas must bear some share of the blame. I will read to the House what the Egyptian Foreign Minister said a couple of weeks ago:"““The Israelis have been warning you that this was coming if you continue your cross border rocket attacks. Egypt has been imploring you to stop firing rockets into Israel, but you ignored our words. We have been urging you to renew the cease-fire with Israel, but you refused. You have brought this upon yourselves. You are responsible for what is happening to the people of Gaza.””" I will read what an adviser to President Abbas said, also a couple of weeks ago:"““The one responsible for the massacres is Hamas, and not the Zionist entity, which in its own view reacted to the firing of Palestinian missiles. Hamas needs to stop treating the blood of Palestinians lightly.””" Concentrating on the word ““massacre””, there is no doubt that that is what it is. It is awful to watch. During the British involvement in Iraq, there has also been a terrible massacre of civilians, as well as of fighters. The same is true of Afghanistan. The same was also true of the second and the first world wars, but that does not make it wrong for the British to have fought. The distinction lies between those who set out to kill and maim civilians and children, and all too often succeed, and those who set out to avoid doing so, and all too often fail. I know which side I am on. The situation is awful, and it is not as though the Israelis do not know that it is awful. It is not as though the leaders of Hamas do not know that, either, and I have the appalling impression that Hamas has come to a calculated opinion that the more Palestinians who die, the more extreme Israel appears and the better Hamas's cause is served. That is why it uses civilians as human shields and schools from which to launch rockets. In 2007, I visited Sderot. I spoke to schoolchildren and went into two of their bomb shelters. I spoke to parents and learned about the daily trauma with which their children grow up. There is absolute unity in Israel on the issue. Any Israeli Government who had failed to react very strongly to the barrage of rockets would have immediately been removed and replaced with a much harder-line Government than one led by Tzipi Livni or Ehud Olmert. Tzipi Livni has been seriously trying to negotiate with the Palestinians, and none of us in the House should wish to see a more hard-line Government.