mr president those of us that are friends of israel may well have questioned many aspects of the way in which israel intervened in gaza but not the right of israel to defend herself and to take effective action against those that are planning and executing acts of terrorism against her
i have enormous sympathy for the ordinary palestinian people but for sixty years they have been let down by those that claim to lead them and those amongst them whose profession is terrorism
it was clear from the start that a report emanating from the dubious human rights council of the un and that mr howitt is what the leader of our group criticised not the un i am afraid your rather petty party point was rather demeaning would be a one-sided condemnation of israel
while it makes far-reaching demands of israel it says little about hamas
it does not call for an end to terrorism and attacks on israel but merely asks so-called palestinian armed groups to renounce attacks on israeli civilians and to try and avoid harm to palestinian civilians
i see nothing in a five hundred and fifty-four page report that offers constructive positive proposals for lasting peace and stability
instead we find that the rhetoric of human rights and the instruments of the icc are enlisted to attack israel and i have to say such distortion does no credit to the united nations
