Israel will ‘drive moderates to extremism’ says Martin

THE continuing punishment of the Palestinian people by Israel will drive moderates into the arms of extremists, Foreign Minister Michéal Martin has warned.

He told his fellow EU ministers at their meeting in Luxembourg yesterday that everyone has been patient for the last nine months since the bombing of Gaza, waiting for the situation to change.

The ministers had a wide-ranging discussion on the situation in the Middle East prior to the EU-US summit in Washington next Tuesday jointly chaired by Swedish Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt and US President Barak Obama.