IRELAND has recognised Palestine as a state.
Coming just two weeks before important European and local elections, it’s not hard not to look upon it with a jaundiced eye.
A political stroke to take the thunder from Sinn Fein and other members of the angry hard left who have been screaming themselves hoarse since Israel invaded Gaza.
“Historic”, some called it. And it probably is in the sense that Ireland, Norway and Spain are now among the few countries outside of the Middle East, Africa and Asia to recognise Palestine.
But aside from the symbolism, what does recognising Palestine achieve, except to further divide an already turbulent and fraught western world against itself?
Taoiseach Simon Harris’s decision to recognise Palestine is like pushing an open door in Ireland.
The majority of Irish people side with Gaza. They see Israel as the aggressor, the brute.
The suffering of the Gazan people is all that’s acknowledged; the atrocity committed against Israel by Hamas on October 7 has long been forgotten in the cloud of daily propaganda that spews forth from the indignant and the self-righteous.
Take a wander for half an hour on Twitter (X), Facebook, TikTok or Instagram and you’ll emerge nauseous from your bath in the bile.
Harris’s recognition of Palestine gives validation to all that anger.
And, as might be argued, Ireland’s thumbs up to Palestinian statehood implicitly rewards the monsters in Hamas who started this horrid war in the first place.
But that viewpoint exists in the shadows, on the margins in Ireland, where to be in any way pro-Israeli is to attract venom and spit.
The complexities of history in the Middle East have been reduced to black and white perspectives, on BOTH sides, it must be said.
Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu has become a machine of total war. The pledge to wipe Hamas from the face of the Earth has inevitably led to its army going too far in Gaza.
Too many innocents have been killed. Too many children are suffering. Too many lives have been broken forever.
The people of Gaza have become the ultimate victims of the horrors unleashed in their name on October 7.
Trapped in hell in an apocalyptic struggle between Hamas, a death cult steeped in anti-Semitic blood lust, and Israel, whose military response has been Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth.
Is it any wonder that this week, the International Criminal Court sought arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Israeli PM Netanyahu on war crime charges?
The wisdom, or otherwise, of this quickly became apparent.
Rather than reining in both sides, the ICC further polarised the warring-amongst-itself west.
The French sided with the international court (as did Ireland), while the US and Britain remained steadfastly, full square behind Israel.
Wars, of course, divide people. The war in Gaza has fractured the world like no other.
Anger fills many veins. Cool heads are few and far between now, when they’re needed the most.
Politicians have a sacred duty in times of great global tumult to choose their words and their deeds very carefully. The recognition of Palestine now is the opposite of what’s required.
It infuriated Israel and gave succour to Hamas (even if that wasn’t the intention, it’s the inevitable consequence).
Hamas WELCOMED Ireland’s move to recognise Palestine (of course they did!). Israel was incandescent with rage (predictably). Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the decision showed that “terrorism pays”.
He went on: “History will remember that Spain, Norway and Ireland decided to award a gold medal to the Hamas murderers and rapists.”
Very strong words which, for most in Ireland, will go in one ear and out the other.
Norway and Spain said they would make recognition official on May 28, alongside Ireland.
Spain said the decision is “not against Israel, not in favour of Hamas, it is in favour of peace”. Noble but ignorant words.
Before Palestine can be a state, as it should be, the war in Gaza must end. Only then can a two-state solution (the ONLY way to make peace durable in the Middle East) be achieved.
That will necessitate difficult compromise on both sides and the iron will of mature diplomacy.
It was premature, and immature, of Ireland, Spain and Norway to leap into an uncertain future without understanding the consequences.
It may be a deeply popular move to most, but it is one that creates unpredictable tremors, rather than cementing the ground for peace.
SO the UK will go to the polls on July 4 – the same week that most Brits will be obsessed with the footie.
Up to 100,000 England fans – and as many Scotland supporters – could be OUT of the UK that day, over in Germany watching Harry Kane and John McGinn in the European Championships.
Those that don’t travel will be fixated on the tourney at home.
If England are doing well, the feel-good factor will no doubt soften Keir Starmer’s cough.
So hats off to Rishi Sunak. It’s a genius move. The Tories are on their knees in the polls and Labour look set to be catapulted back into power after a 14 year hiatus.
What better way to dampen the Labour surge than to schedule elections when most people will be HAPPY?
Well, that’s probably the plan. But it depends on England actually doing the business on the pitch, something they have failed at in every major final since 1966.
Either way, an early summer election is the best move to try and stem the tide of Tory losses.
SPEAKING of footie, Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso went for a run in Dublin city centre on Wednesday afternoon ahead of his side’s Europa League Final against Atalanta at the Aviva.
Like all streetwise lads, Xabi wisely avoided the drug-plagued Boardwalk during his 5km workout.
THE sewer that is X revealed its stinking self again in recent days by platforming vile hatred towards European Parliament election candidate, Cynthia Ni Mhurchu.
The Fianna Fail woman - who famously hosted Eurovision alongside Gerry Ryan in 1994 - filed an official complaint with the Data Commissioner this week after being repeatedly subjected to misogynistic posts on the Elon Musk-owned social media site.
X, which claims it is not a publisher and therefore not responsible for anything that is posted on its pages, has said nothing in response. Typical.
Let’s hope the Data Commissioner comes down like a ton of bricks on them.
If you’re still on X, delete it before your mind turns to mush.
THE Government has THREE TIMES dismantled the asylum-seeker tent city in Dublin city centre, and on three occasions another one has shot back up again within hours.
Which makes a mockery of the State’s lame attempts to deal with a crisis of their own doing.
Bottom line is this government has failed to plan for the surge of asylum seekers that are now flocking to our shores.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee, who has gone very quiet in recent weeks, was told TWO YEARS ago by officials in her own department that asylum seekers would come here in big numbers as a result of the UK’s Rwanda policy.
She did nothing. Guess what? Her officials were right.
And as many as 24,000 failed UK asylum seekers have disappeared to the winds in Britain, with many of them making the easy journey across the Irish Sea from Scotland to Northern Ireland and on down here on a bus, unmolested by any agency of the state (because we’re against a hard border on the island of Ireland!!).
The elections are around the corner, and immigration is now the number one issue on the doorsteps as canvassers try to win votes.
The government clearly doesn’t know what it’s at. And seems incapable of doing anything other than to take down the tents and house the removed asylum seekers in more tents behind giant walls on state-owned land away from prying eyes.
Keep them out of sight, stick your head in the sand and hope the problem goes away. That’s their asylum policy.
COPS here will drive around in big trucks on our motorways to spy on drivers and catch them while they’re ‘distracted’ on their phones, eating a sandwich, putting on lipstick, reading a book, watching a movie or taking a nap. Which is laughable.
To nab offenders, the Garda spy truck is going to have to overtake cars by using the fast lane, or undertake motors - two manoeuvres which are ILLEGAL for HGVs.
Cops breaking the law to catch people breaking the law. You couldn’t make it up.
Except, you could. It’s Ireland.
NO, it’s not a crocodile poised to eat Maura Higgins.
It’s our very own Love Island star stripped to her bikini and contemplating diving off a cliff in Montenegro.
Plunge completed, Maura headed back to town in her post-beach gear to enjoy an ice cream in the late afternoon heat.
Fair play to her. As the rest of us sweat the small stuff in our humdrum lives, Maura is swanning around the world enjoying herself.
And why not? What else would she be doing?
