mr president some would have us believe that this house today acted out of a crisis of conscience
i must say that i find that strange considering how many times this house has endorsed agreements without a whimper in respect of countries which indeed have appalling human rights records and which indeed have governmental structures which are far from democratic
it seems to me that this house was blown off course today by an orchestrated campaign from without and within of very considerable venom against the state of israel and that we allowed ourselves to be unduly influenced by that
the blind bigotry that some have shown against israel is quite appalling
israel is a democracy in a region where democracies are few and far between
it accepts a two-state solution
it has been subjected to the most horrendous external and internal terrorism and in consequence it undoubtedly has the right to defend itself
some in this house seem so concerned with their angst and hatred of israel that they are eager to excuse terrorist attacks and indeed eager to excuse the excesses of hamas in gaza seeing fault only within the state that is under attack
i think that is wrong
