Carnage in Gaza: Playing games with a real tragedy

The members of any representative political institution, elected or merely nominated, are entrusted with that body’s integrity and reputation, its sense of purpose and its sense of possibility.

How they behave, how they guard that considerable responsibility, defines that entity's place in the world and, most importantly, how it is regarded by those it represents. It defines whether it has the capacity and moral authority to lead change, bring influence to bear or whether it is taken seriously or not.

This week's recall of Seanad Éireann to discuss the ongoing atrocities in Gaza and the persistent Hamas missile attacks on Israel may well seem justified but it is - tragically - an embarrassing combination of opportunist grandstanding and utterly empty gesture. It seems an almost laughable re-enactment of the Skibbereen Eagle's brave, David-like stand when it warned Czar Alexander that it was keeping its eye on Russia.

By its very impotence the forum adds insult to injury to those under attack and any conclusion it reaches will go utterly unnoticed by those in a position to bring the savagery to an end. Those behind the initiative may imagine that it shows the democratic process at its best but in reality all they are doing is demeaning it and showing how very powerless they are. Condemnation by members of Seanad Éireann will hardly influence much less change proceedings in the Knesset or among the officer corps of Hamas.

Those behind the showboating should remember that less than a year ago the institution they belittle by their high-summer antics barely survived a vote on its survival - 51.7% to 48.3%. This kind of empty self-indulgence will hardly reassure those who voted to protect the Seanad. Unfortunately it does little more, other than feed some senators' inflated sense of self-importance, than undermine our entire parliamentary system and give succor to those who wish to see it weakened further. It also, unfortunately again, does Ireland considerable reputational damage among the international community, especially the diplomatic and business leaders we so depend on to help restore economic growth in a battered economy.

The weekend call from the UN Security Council for "an immediate and unconditional ceasefire" may not, if history is a reliable teacher, be much more effective than any plea our senators might agree after their debate. It is however another disheartening part of this almost cyclical tragedy that the UN is so weak that it is unable to make a decisive intervention. It is another tragedy of our world that the organisation set up to, among many other objectives, try to maintain the peace can do little more than issue fine-sounding statements - just like Seanad Éireann.

However, one weekend intervention has the capacity to be a game changer if only words and deeds were matched.

If President Obama's weekend conversations with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which he expressed his growing concern of the ever-increasing death toll in Gaza, were informed by the outrage most of the civilised world feels towards Israeli aggression - and Hamas terrorism - then a ceasefire might become a reality and a long-lasting resolution a possibility.

It is more than dishonest to pretend that America is not complicit in the slaughter in Gaza and it is utterly incomprehensible that American public opinion has not voiced the kind of abhorrence that would force a change in its country's policy. Israel may have the most powerful army in the region but without America's support - One estimate suggests $8.5 million (6.3 million) a day - then the country's war chest would soon be exhausted, and, having no alternative, Israel would have to enter talks determined to secure a peaceful future for all people in the region. It is very difficult to understand why America has not played this trump card.