The release from captivity of 9-year-old Emily Hand made the Israeli public very happy, partly because at first Israel thought she had been murdered by Hamas members, and later it turned out that she was alive and abducted in the Gaza Strip. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar expressed joy at the release of Emily, who holds Israeli-Irish citizenship: "An innocent girl who was lost, and now has been found and returned," he wrote in a post on social network X.
After 50 days in captivity: Emily Hand meets her father // IDF Spokesperson
This announcement caused great outrage in Israel, since the Irish leader completely ignored the abduction itself, the war crimes of Hamas murderers, and the general background surrounding the abduction. Foreign Minister Eli Cohen summoned the Irish ambassador to Israel and reprimanded him for Ireland's problematic conduct regarding the confrontation between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization. In this context, we spoke with Prof. Jonathan Reinhold, head of the political science department at Bar-Ilan University, in order to understand the Irish conduct regarding the Israeli struggle against the Hamas terrorist organization, and what Ireland's political position is regarding Israel in general.
"At the outset, it should be noted that the Irish prime minister later issued a longer statement, in which he referred to Hamas and called for the return of all the abductees, although even this statement would not support Israel's position," says Prof. Reinhold. Regarding the difficult political position against Israel, the expert explained that "now the Conservative Party is in power in Ireland, which is indeed against Israel, but it is the least anti-Israel there is. In the opposition there is the Shane Fine Party [former members of the RIA underground organization], and it supports the boycott of Israel, yet it is now more popular than the ruling party."
Anti-Israel protesters in Dublin, Ireland, Photo: AP
"Also, in Varadkar's coalition, there are two other anti-Israel parties. Therefore, the Irish prime minister preferred to issue a comprehensive and casual statement around the incident, so as not to get into problems with anyone. He did it because of the internal politics in his country," explains Prof. Reinhold. According to the expert, Ireland is very anti-Israel. "The Irish identify with the Palestinians because they see them as a Middle Eastern equivalent of their struggle against Britain, the Irish struggle for independence. Therefore, the Irish have an ancient connection with the PLO and the Palestine Liberation Movement. Beyond that, you have to remember that Ireland is a very Catholic country, so there is also the anti-Semitism of the Church behind it," he says. Prof. Reinhold also explains that the Irish are against Israel because they see the Palestinian struggle as a liberation struggle against colonialism, and they have a strong inclination against Israel, which they perceive as an occupier who is now also just taking revenge on the Palestinians.
Last Thursday, a Muslim migrant stabbed several Irishmen. Doesn't that turn on red flags in Ireland? Doesn't that explain to the Irish the danger of Islam?
"No, this incident is minor and not as influential as the great effects of immigrants in France, Germany, Italy and Britain, where migrants already threaten the identity of the majority and therefore there is more understanding of Israel, at least on the part of the governments, which understand much more about the danger of Islam and Muslim immigrants to Europe. In Ireland there is not such a large number of immigrants and therefore there is no awareness of the dark side of Islam. Nor was there a major incident of terror to rouse the Irish. They see the struggle as something parallel to their national narrative against Britain, which is why Ireland is one of the most hostile countries to Israel in the European Union. The Irish even tried to pass a law boycotting settlement products in the past and backed down only because they saw that the rest of Europe was not into it."
Riots in Dublin, Ireland, after stabbing // Reuters
With regard to the reprimand that the Irish ambassador to Israel received from the Foreign Minister, Prof. Reinhold believes that this reprimand has no effect on the Irish and will not change their policy.
"What affects the Irish is not an Israeli reprimand. The Irish are influenced by the positions of the other EU countries and the United States. These countries with which Ireland has ties and are important to the Irish, they influence everything related to determining the Irish political position vis-à-vis Israel," he says.
Disgust in Europe with the ruling elites
At the end of our remarks, we asked Prof. Reinhold about Geert Wilders' surprise victory in the Netherlands, and about the fact that Italy has a strong right-wing government.
We wanted to know whether this was an overall trend of the strengthening of the deep right, the extreme right in Europe, or whether these were two unrepresentative cases.
"What we see today is the disintegration of the political center towards the extreme left and the extreme right. Although there is still a large center, it is weakening. Therefore, we will see in some places the rise of the extreme right, and in other places the rise of the left. The reason for this is the sense of disgust and detachment of most of the ordinary public from the elites of European countries. By the way, in the United States, too, we see this in the strength of both Trump and Bernie Sanders."
The strengthening of the right. Donald Trump (archive), photo: AP
"The reason for the revulsion is the economic crisis of 2008, after which no power force paid a price. The crisis caused the public to pay a lot to cover it, and on the other hand, the public did not see that anyone in the leadership was paying the price for what happened. This created a significant alienation between the masses and the leading elite, and today we see this alienation ripening for the tracing of the extreme right and left in Europe. This is a trend that we will continue to see," he concludes.
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