Why is Ireland rewarding Hamas?

For once, the Irish government has actually done something it promised. The problem is that it’s precisely the wrong thing, at precisely the wrong time.

On Wednesday, Ireland, along with Norway and Spain, committed to recognizing a Palestinian state. Ireland will formally ratify this on May 28. It’s a bizarre and utterly counterproductive move which has the very real potential to plunge the region into even more carnage, but one which many Irish politicians from all parties have been demanding for the last few months.

This is a reward for committing the single greatest crime against Jews since the dark days of the Holocaust

It’s easy to see why Taoiseach Simon Harris decided to engage in such a fatuous piece of political virtue-signaling. He has only been in the top job for a month, but is hugely unpopular with the general public. His administration’s abject failure to cope with the country’s mammoth housing crisis and an escalating resentment about record levels of illegal immigration, which have even seen “tent cities” full of migrants appear on the streets of Dublin, has placed his back firmly to the wall.

With his government expected to be absolutely battered at next month’s local and European elections, he needed a win, any win. And this is the win he decided to pick, regardless of the diplomatic fallout it would cause with Israel, a country many Irish people seem to forget is the only democracy in the region.

Understandably, the Israelis have reacted with fury to this decision by the three European nations to recognize Palestine.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, has summoned the ambassadors of all three countries for what he calls “reprimand” talks and has declared that he will make them watch the videos of the Hamas pogrom of October 7.

Never made available to the general public due to their graphic nature and only shown to a few selected members of the media, the footage is a postcard from Hell, with Hamas fighters laughing and joking as they commit unspeakable atrocities against young women, babies and civilians. It remains one of the most disturbing pieces of film I have ever witnessed. If the Irish ambassador, Sonya McGuinness, does watch the footage, she will need a strong stomach.

How will she react, seeing these women being brutally defiled? How will she feel about her own government rewarding such acts of depravity by granting Palestinian statehood? Only she will know.

But make no mistake, Ireland is rewarding Hamas. This is a reward for mass murder. This is a reward for committing the single greatest crime against Jews since the dark days of the Holocaust.

With dreary inevitability, Harris droned on about how Ireland’s move was “not rewarding” Hamas and was, instead, a bridge to peace and an effort to increase the chances of creating a two state solution.

This is obvious nonsense. While he has many faults, being stupid is not one of them, so Harris must have been aware that this would play straight into Hamas’s hands. And so it did. Shortly after the announcement from Dublin, senior Hamas official Bassem Naim took credit and lauded this ridiculous move as a tribute to “the brave resistance of the Palestinians.”

In other words, in a post-October 7 world, this is incontrovertible proof that crime really does pay.

As Israel Katz correctly pointed out, “history will remember that Spain, Norway and Ireland decided to award a gold medal to the Hamas murderers and rapists, who raped teenage girls and burned babies.”

Even if this delusional fever dream of formally recognizing Palestinian statehood comes to fruition amongst the broader global community, who does Ireland think will represent the Palestinian people?

The largely defunct PLO remains the only internationally recognized representative of the Palestinians, and their spokesman, Hussein al-Sheikh was quick to declare that this is the path to “peace, stability and security in the region.”

That claim remains dubious in the extreme. Fatah and Hamas fought a brutal war against each other and ever since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, they have tried to establish a strict, Taliban-esque form of Islamic control over the citizens unfortunate enough to be kept under their thumb.

Does anyone honestly think that Hamas and their Iranian pay masters would tolerate anyone other than Hamas being this representative? When you take a step back and look at the decision clearly, it becomes obvious that this statehood declaration is a recipe for disaster.

The already embattled Israeli embassy in Dublin’s Ballsbridge (where tributes left outside the building to the victims of October 7 were smashed and vandalized) released a statement yesterday which seemed drenched in sorrow more than anger.

According to Israeli ambassador, Dana Erlich, “this act jeopardises any hope of Hamas releasing any of the 128 women, children and men kidnapped and held captive by them.”

She continued, “recognition raises many questions, such as what is meant by ‘Palestine’? What does it mean for Gaza since Hamas, who control it, are bitter rivals of the Palestinian Authority?”

Harris may feel that this move will give him a much needed bounce in the polls in a country which often seems almost overwhelmingly Israelophobic (although the fact that the Irish general public awarded Israel ten points at the recent Eurovision was an act of defiance by the silent majority who have rejected the media-led narrative).

But the long-term consequences of this decision could be ruinous and, to be honest, as I write this, I am ashamed to be Irish.

Meanwhile, in the next few days, ambassador Erlich is due to return to Israel for consultations with Katz. It would be no great surprise if she never returned and the already frosty diplomatic relations between the two nations break down completely. 

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.