Cllr Emma Murphy

If a country sitting on a rock in the North Atlantic comes to regard a conflict nearly 4,000 kilometres away as more important than almost anything else, it is worth asking why. I like Ireland. It is a small country living next to a much larger neighbour. A country that has never been afraid to speak its mind or stand on its own feet. In that respect, it reminds me of something. But Ireland's apparent obsession with condemning Israel at every opportunity is not healthy. Especially when many of the arguments involved turn out to be the same exaggerations, distortions and manipulations that have long been commonplace in Middle Eastern politics. Why is it not the starting point of public debate in Ireland that Israel, as a state, has every right to exist? Why is it not the starting point that Israel has repeatedly been attacked by opponents who have never reconciled themselves to the establishment of a Jewish state nearly eighty years ago? Why is it not the starting point that the current war began when Hamas committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Second World War on 7 October 2023? Why are so many people in Ireland willing to accept even the most extravagant accusations coming from the Palestinian side, while showing remarkably little interest in hearing the counterarguments? And then there is the critical question. If Israel were to lose this war against Hamas - an outcome that some voices in Ireland seem surprisingly relaxed about - what exactly would follow? Hamas is not a liberal democratic movement. It is an Islamist movement whose ideology has far more in common with groups such as ISIS than with any Western political tradition. An Israeli defeat would be celebrated as a major victory by Hamas and by the Iranian regime, a regime that has spent decades repressing its own citizens and destabilising the wider region. I do not believe that many Irish people genuinely wish to see Hamas achieve its political objectives. Nor do I believe that many Irish people would welcome a major strategic victory for Iran. Or rather, I hope not. Because if there really is a large majority in Ireland that believes a victory for Hamas and Iran over Israel would be a positive development, then the discussion should no longer be about Israel alone. It should also be about Ireland itself - and about what role Ireland wishes to play in Europe.