SOFT POWER AND HARD POWER (No. 2)

That this House recalls the hard power stance adopted by the Government in July 2006 by describing calls for a cease-fire in Lebanon as a meaningless gesture; asserts that that call was not meaningless for the children subsequently buried alive at Qana, the thousand killed and the million whose homes were destroyed; and believes the soft power option of an early cease-fire would have avoided these tragedies, which weakened Israel and strengthened Hezbollah.