asked the Minister for External Affairs if he is aware of the resentment his United Nations statement on the Israeli-Arab dispute has caused in many citizens; and if he will make it clear that many Irish people are sympathetic to the wish of Israel to live in peaceful security and are critical of the hostility exhibited by some countries towards Israel.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Middle East Dispute: Minister's UN Statement.
2.
The answer to the first part of the question is that I am not aware that my speech in the United Nations caused, as the Deputy alleges, resentment in many citizens. As far as I know it met with the full approval of all who read the full text of the statement, who approve the principles of the Charter, who realise that we live in a world in which there are already five nuclear powers and many other near-nuclear states, and who are convinced of the urgent and vital need for a treaty which will establish peaceful and neighbourly relations between the states in the Middle-East.
In regard to the second part of the Deputy's question I may say that my speech in the United Nations made it abundantly clear that the Irish Government are sympathetic to the peaceful security of both Israel and her Arab neighbours. It made clear also that the Government are opposed to all hostility, or pretended or shortsighted friendship, which would incite any of the States concerned to take action or adopt an attitude of recalcitrance which might postpone or render impossible the negotiation and signing of a treaty of peace and security between Israel, Jordan, Syria and the United Arab Republic.
Will the Minister agree that the situation in 1967 is very different from what it was in 1956? In 1956, you had a situation in which two powerful nations, Britain and France, entered into a war of aggression, whereas in this case it was a question of a small nation fighting for its own survival against a combination of hostile nations which were four hundred times greater in number. Would the Minister not agree that it would be disastrous if any remarks, actions or thoughts of ours should be interpreted by the enemies of Israel as an encouragement to them to renew their threats to exterminate the people of Israel?
The Deputy cannot summarise all the complex problems that exist in the Middle East and which have existed for a number of years in a few short sentences. I do not propose to do it here. If the Deputy reads my speech he will see that we took a balanced view of this disastrous state of affairs and that we did what the representative of a small country can do to try to promote peace, a negotiated peace which both the Israelis and their Arab neighbours will accept and abide by. I do not think it would be right for me or anybody else to incite or encourage either of those States to take a stand against negotiations and against a reasonable settlement that would give all of them the security they should have and must have if the world is to avoid a general conflagration.
Will the Minister say why he delayed so long in replying to the telegram from U Thant and why also he has not taken any steps to condemn the setting up by the Egyptians of missile bases on the west bank of Suez? Does he think there is any reality in pretending that this conflagration did not take place?
Deputy Ryan seems to have suddenly got a great interest in those affairs and in the attitude of the Government to them. For ten years the Government's policy on this has been available to the Deputy and to everybody else.
As the events only transpired six weeks ago that would be damned hard.
It is a pity the Minister was not available to us.
He will be after last week.
For ten years Deputy Ryan should be in full possession of all the facts of this situation and the attitude of the Government towards it.
And changing circumstances.
What we have always tried to promote is a reasonable settlement of the complex differences between these countries. I think it is wrong for Deputy Ryan or anybody else to try to incite either side to take action, or to take an attitude——
It is all right for the Minister.
——that would encourage them not to make a negotiated peace.
In view of what the Minister says as to the reasons for this conflict, is it not regrettable in the circumstances that he did not see fit to consult Dáil Éireann before he himself declared what should be final in regard to this country's attitude to this matter?
Dáil Éireann was consulted on this matter ten years ago. If they wanted to be consulted and to voice any opinion they had ten years in which to do it.
How could they do that when the war was only a couple of weeks ago?
This is not the first war in the Middle East. This has been a continuing situation since I made the speech on this thing in the United Nations in 1958.
It is a different war, a different type of war.
Keep quiet and grow up. Every year since, I have advocated for a situation of this kind, in which there are tensions, in which there is a conflict of interests between the different groups, that they should be taken out of the present situation, that there should be a treaty of peace made by which the differences would be settled and that the territorial integrity of all the countries would be guaranteed—accepted, in the first instance, by the states concerned and guaranteed by the United Nations, including the great powers. This is what we want at the present time for this state of affairs between Israel and her neighbours. First of all we want the States concerned to recognise the territorial integrity of each of these countries and that they are not going to annex, or attempt to annex, each other's territories by force of arms, that they will settle their differences peacefully and that if they agree to a treaty of peace and non-aggression, it will be guaranteed by all the great powers, or as many of them as are prepared to guarantee it.
Would the Minister not agree that it would be more desirable and sensible that at periods more frequently than ten years he should consult Dáil Éireann before he makes up his mind on any situation?
I can always consult the Deputy if ever the need arises.
Why not consult all Deputies on this?
I consulted all Deputies on this ten years ago.
This is a different war.
The Minister is not here.
No, he is living in the past; he is living in New York.
If any of you want to go off and fight a war, do not let me stop you.
You are likely to declare it on us.
Will you say what you want?