The Northern Ireland conflict cannot be compared with the Middle East, although lessons can be learned from the Irish experience, the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Zion Evrony told a Dáil committee yesterday.
"Hamas is not the IRA," Dr Evrony said as he addressed the Joint European Committee on European Affairs, alongside Dr Hikmat Ajjuri, delegate general of the Palestinian General Delegation.
Dr Evrony pointed to the role played by religion with Hamas and IRA members and said that, unlike the IRA, the political agenda and religious beliefs of Hamas were "one and the same". Hamas members were unlikely to change their religious beliefs to bring about a peace settlement, Dr Evrony said.
He also pointed out that Ireland was "blessed with two great neighbours", the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Irish Sea on the other. "We had to fight seven wars to defend ourselves," he said and pointed to the waves of suicide bombings. Dr Evrony claimed that 98 per cent of the Middle East conflict was not a war because it consisted of suicide bombers attacking the Israelis.
He said the current negotiations were proceeding well "but it may be too ambitious and optimistic to assume that a final agreement can be reached by the end of 2008 because the issues are too complex and there are no easy solutions".
Dr Ajjuri pointed to illegal Israeli settlements as the biggest stumbling block for the Palestinians.
"Unless the issue of these settlements is seriously tackled and dealt with as a blatant breach of the international law, all attempts, via bilateral negotiations, to building up the Palestinian economy, to establishing a viable Palestinian state, will fail."
He urged western leaders to use all their power to ensure that an agreement was reached, "because the alternative is the end of the state of Israel".
