Paul Kearns: It's not as simple as Bob Geldof thinks for Israelis to 'snap out of it'

If families of the remaining hostages have been unable to pressure their government to prioritise Israeli lives, the lives of their children held in underground tunnels for two years, does Geldof think that they can pressurise the government to consider the fate of Palestinian children?

Israeli activists take part in a protest against the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel's measures regarding food distribution, and the forced displacement of Palestinians, in Tel Aviv last week. Picture: AP/Ohad Zwigenberg

“What has happened to the Israeli people?”.

Bob Geldof last week made an impassioned plea to Miriam O'Callaghan on RTÉ’s Primetime for “Israelis to snap out of it” and “to rise up against their government”. In the context of the daily horrific images from Gaza and more than 20 months of onslaught on the Palestinian civilian population, Geldof asks an important and, I would argue, very profound question: “What has happened to the Israeli people?”.