Kettle's Boyled: And behold, Simon did smite the Israelites

I want to preface what I am about to say by making clear my position on Israel’s response to the invasion of their country by Hamas in October last, when 1,139 citizens were slaughtered and 252 hostages were taken back across the border to Gaza. Despite the barbarity of the Hamas attack, the response by Israel has been beyond what is acceptable from a supposedly civilised, democratic country. I will get criticism that ignores my comments and accuses me of being pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian, but I can’t change that. The subject has become so emotive in Ireland that frank discussion of the topic is impossible. For various reasons, Irish people identify with Hamas and not with Israel, and this was the position long before the October invasion and Israel’s subsequent retaliation.

This whipped-up support of Hamas was becoming an election issue here. Sinn Fein in particular has always called for recognition of Palestine. Despite there being no defined state to recognise, and no effective government to engage with in any case, the Irish government went on to do just that and to even fly the Palestinian Authority flag at Leinster House. As a political stunt designed to eat Sinn Fein’s breakfast before they got up, it was a master stroke, and that was reflected in a drop in that party’s support in the following weekend’s polls.

But was it the right thing to do, or the right time to do it? I don’t believe it was, and I think it was done in part for electoral reasons. Had it been made conditional on releasing the remaining hostages, or on a temporary cease-fire by Hamas, it might have been possible to justify it. But there is dubious merit in giving recognition to a rogue state that in many eyes is little more than a machine for turning aid money into tunnels and rockets. It won’t help bring peace to the region either; it has emboldened Hamas, justifying the slaughter of Israeli civilians in October in their eyes and the eyes of their supporters.

I still wonder about our government’s condescending attempt to make constitutional changes on International Women’s Day last March, possibly hoping it might in some way show that they cared about women. For largely populist reasons, it was decided to hold referendums seeking to change the constitution in very vague terms, but the voters weren’t fooled.

The two actions by the government, running an ill-advised referendum campaign and recognising the State of Palestine at this time, have a common thread. Both were populist moves to appease the electorate, something they succeeded in doing in the second instance. But his kind of populist nonsense is not good governance, not something done for the best of reasons but for the worst of reasons. We deserve better than that.