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Israel and Palestine: Gaza

My Lords, while accepting that the Minister has to be—and, indeed, is—even-handed between the combatants in this matter, does he not accept the reality that Israel is the established state?. The Palestinians are still seeking their independence and their state, which President Bush originally promised in 2005. Does the Minister therefore agree that the British Government have a duty to warn Israel about the stage it has reached with this monumental mistake of the invasion in Gaza? This is the equivalent of Israel’s Sharpeville. Gaza will now be remembered throughout Arabia as Israel’s Sharpeville. The whole tone has now changed towards Israel in that whole area. This is tragic as it is unfair on the millions of moderate, decent Israelis who want a settlement and a two-state solution. Will the British Government remind the Israeli Ministers—some of them inept and incompetent to a degree which understandably caused the fury and rage of Gerald Kaufman in another place in Thursday’s debate, despite the histrionic language—that they have a solemn duty to resume these negotiations with the Palestinians as quickly as possible, whatever the structure may be, to ensure that Hamas is included? It is absurd, is it not, to exclude Hamas from these processes to create that state as quickly as possible? The negotiations with President Abbas were going on far too long with no results at all, and no one lifted a finger in the EU part of the quartet or in Britain to protest to the Israeli Government about the lack of response on their part. Does the Minister agree that this must now surely be done as quickly as possible? That means accepting the suggestion made by the noble Lord, Lord Steinberg—we are both friends of Israel, but we have somewhat different views on the way to achieve outcomes—insisting that Israel immediately opens all the crossings on the Israeli side into Gaza.