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LAST UPDATE | 17 Dec 2024
THE TAOISEACH HAS rightly described the Israeli Government’s decision to close its Embassy in Dublin as highly regrettable. The Irish Government had correctly resisted earlier strong calls for the Israeli Ambassador to be expelled. However, there are at least five reasons why Ireland should not get overexcited about the Israeli decision.
First, diplomatic relations, by definition, exist between two sovereign countries. Israel, as a sovereign country, has the right to decide where it will open, maintain or close embassies. Likewise Ireland, as a sovereign country, one with a significantly higher moral standing in the world than Israel at present, has every right – indeed an obligation – to take principled positions on international issues, including on issues with a significant moral dimension such as the ongoing injustice and brutality being inflicted on the Palestinians. Even if the recent Israeli decision is a regrettable one, both countries are within their rights.
Second, it seems that diplomatic relations between Ireland and Israel will remain in place. That is certainly the Irish Government’s wish and, by implication, also that of Israel. We intend to maintain our Embassy in Tel Aviv. While it is not an ideal arrangement, there are many precedents for a resident Embassy in one country not being reciprocated by the maintenance of a resident Embassy in the opposite direction. For example, the decision in 2010 of the then Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, to close the Swedish Embassy in Dublin as part of a foreign ministry reorganisation, criticised privately at the time by many of his own diplomats, did not affect the operation of the Irish Embassy in Stockholm. Sweden reopened its Embassy here last year.
Third, while it would be preferable to have an Israeli Embassy here, the suggestion put forward yesterday by the outgoing Israeli Ambassador, Dana Erlich, that Ireland will now find itself internationally isolated is wildly exaggerated. Ireland’s positioning on the conflict in Gaza is mainstream in terms of global opinion, even if it is more balanced than many countries in consistently criticising Hamas along with the actions of the Netanyahu Government.
Moreover, Ireland is not isolated as regards the specific decisions it has taken on recognising Palestine or on intervening in the case before the International Court of Justice. What is distinctive, rather, is the Israeli Government’s decision to single out Ireland rather than, say, Spain or Norway. This was presumably because we are a relatively small country. We are not, of course, an easy target and are more than capable of standing up for our interests and values. An administrative re-organisation of Israel’s embassies was probably also a factor in the decision, with the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s simultaneous announcement that it is opening an Embassy in Moldova.
Any objective person can see that it is Israel itself, not Ireland, that finds itself increasingly isolated due to its indiscriminate and disproportionate actions in Gaza. Unquestioning supporters of Netanyahu’s military actions seem to be living in a parallel universe in which understandable emotion has banished rational thought.
Fourth, the assertion by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, in its statement on the closure of the Embassy, that Ireland has taken an “extreme anti-Israeli position” is designed to damage Ireland and to distract from the horrific carnage in Gaza. It will convince only those who reject any notion of balance. Most people understand well that Ireland’s approach is balanced, that we have been forthright and consistent in condemning Hamas atrocities, and that what really irks Israel is our unflinching support for international law and humanitarian law.
At the heart of Ireland’s approach are two fundamental principles. The only possible long-term resolution to the conflict is a two-state solution in which the rights and aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians are recognised as of equal value. And that all civilian lives are recognised as being equally precious. The Irish Government rejects out of hand the philosophy of both Hamas and the Netanyahu government that women and children, on the other side of the divide, are expendable.
Fifth, the Israeli accusation that the Taoiseach is antisemitic and that the Irish Government is guilty of “antisemitic rhetoric” is, as well as being reprehensible, patent nonsense. There has been no instance, throughout the present crisis, of any representative of the Irish Government making a single antisemitic remark. The accusation is clearly part of the deliberate, systematic and dangerous conflation, by Netanyahu and his supporters, of the scourge of antisemitism with legitimate condemnation of the indiscriminate killing of 45,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, and the systematic targeting of hospitals, schools and journalists. The accusation is aimed to intimidate those who call out what is happening.
The contemptible accusation of antisemitism will gain little traction other than with the limited number of people around the world whose minds are made up to support Netanyahu’s brutal actions, no matter how shocking. Many Jewish people around the world have joined in condemning Israel’s actions. False assertions of antisemitism damage the profoundly important case against real antisemitism.
Although the Irish Government will be disappointed at the Israeli Government’s decision to close its Embassy and understandably incensed by its intemperate rhetoric and untrue assertions, it should continue to condemn atrocities on both sides, to respond as calmly as possible to Israel’s targeted provocation, and to maintain whatever links with Israel are possible in the circumstances. At the same time, it will not allow itself to be intimidated from asserting Ireland’s values.
Bobby McDonagh is a former Irish Ambassador to the EU, UK and Italy. He is an executive coach and commentator on subjects around EU and Brexit.
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