NO MAN IS AN ISLAND, ENTIRE OF ITSELF

                                                                    by Ron Walsh

It has often been said that wars never solve any problem, and in most cases that would appear to be a truism. But not always. The defeat of Hitlers Nazi’s in the 2nd World War was one such case, and it would be nice to imagine that Putin’s ego-inspired invasion of Ukraine will suffer a similar fate. Vietnam was the polar opposite. Wars are wars, with winners and losers. And there are always war-crimes.

The slaughter and sadism carried out by members of Hamas against Israeli citizens on October 7th 2023 was horrendous. More than 1,200 men, women and children killed, raped, beheaded, with some 2,000 injured and a further 255 taken hostage. It was far more than killing for killings sake, it was pure savagery. And just as there were some demented conspiracy-theorists in the US after 9-11 claiming that the government had deliberately allowed it to happen, there are people who make similar claims regarding the Hamas attack. Some weeks later Israel counter-attacked, with the IDF entering the Gaza Strip seeking the complete elimination of Hamas, who were thought to have something like 25,000 fighters. Suspected Hamas locations were also bombed from the air, while at the same time rockets continued to be fired from inside the coastal area into southern Israel.

By mid-August 2024 the number of deaths inside Gaza was extremely high, with the Hamas run health-ministry claiming that 40,000 people had died, mainly women and children. No mention of Hamas fighters deaths. At the same time the IDF was stating they had killed around 17,000 Hamas fighters. It would be safe to assume that both sides are pumping up the numbers somewhat, for obvious reasons. Hamas, simply because the deaths of women and children would reflect badly on Israel worldwide, and Israel, because the more Hamas fighters it killed the more justification it had for its reaction to October 7th.

Most statements coming from the Hamas run health-ministry are accepted by the world media, although its track record is anything but reassuring. On October 12th it claimed that no civilians had been killed inside Israel on October 7th, only members of the IDF. The actual death figures read; 695 Israeli civilians, 71 foreign nationals, and 373 security forces. It also stated that no Hamas member had raped a woman, as that was against Islamic teachings. Some months later a captured Hamas fighter revealed how himself and his father had raped the same young Israeli woman, before killing her, and that they had been instructed to do so by Hamas leaders beforehand.

Shortly after Israeli ground-forces entered Gaza a rocket exploded in the parking-lot of the al-Ahli hospital, killing and injuring many people. Israel was condemned for the atrocity, and large protest marches were held in many cities around the world. A few days later newsreel footage from American and Israeli cameras, and also from an al-Jazerra camera inside Gaza, showed that the rocket had been fired from close to the rear of the hospital by Islamic Jihad fighters, that it had malfunctioned and had then landed and exploded inside the hospital car-park. Within a day of the truth coming out a press-conference was called by Hamas, and six hospital workers were paraded for the benefit of the media. Their spokesman claimed that just minutes before the rocket had hit the IDF had phoned to say they were about to bomb the hospital. That story did not fit in with the established facts, and was obviously made-up.

Some weeks into the conflict a collection of rifles, hand-grenades and other items were discovered inside a section of the al-Shifa hospital, while a tunnel-entrance was also located inside its compound. Captured CCTV footage from the same hospital showed two captured Israeli hostages from October 7th being walked through its corridors on that same day, surrounded by Hamas gunmen and witnessed by a number of hospital workers. In 2007 Human Rights Watch claimed that Hamas had fired a rocket at its rival group Fatah from inside the al-Shifa complex, while in 2015Amnesty International reported that Hamas had used an empty outpatient clinic inside the hospital to interrogate and torture people suspected of collaborating with Israel.

When wars take place unfortunately the civilian population almost always suffer far higher losses than the military. The civilian death toll inside Gaza has been extremely high, even allowing for some padding of the figures. Israel counters by claiming that members of Hamas deliberately live among the civilian population, which is known to be true. It is also a fact that most of those same fighters have a wife and children living with them, something that hardly improves the situation. Some years ago a ten-year-old Arab boy was stopped at an IDF check-point in an Israeli town, and was found to be wearing an explosives-vest. Something that is used by suicide-bombers. The child’s mother complained that he was ‘’too young to be doing that’’. Golda Meir, Israeli prime-minister from 1969 to 1974, once commented ‘’When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us’’.

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The Zionist movement was founded in 1882 following centuries of anti-Semitic persecution worldwide, including many large-scale pogrom’s carried out against then throughout the Russian Empire. The Jews hoped to return to their ancient homeland in Palestine to build a sovereign and independent state for themselves. In the early years many absentee Arab landlords were happy to dump useless acreage on Jewish settlers for outrageous prices, which resulted in about nine percent of Palestinian land changing hands. But the fields were brought back to life by Jews working in a strange and previously unknown occupation

By the commencement of the Great War in 1914 Palestine had been ruled from the imperial capital of Turkey, Istanbul, for over four centuries, as part of the Ottoman Empire, enduring total cruelty, total corruption, and pernicious feudalism. There was a population of 700,000 Arabs, 62,000 Christians and 60,000 Jews. It was the biblical homeland of the long-scattered Jews, while to the Islamic world it was the home of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, their third most sacred site after Mecca and Medina. Many Jews fought against the Turks by enlisting in the British army, and when the Ottoman’s surrendered to the British army at the end of 1917 the Balfour Declaration came into being; ‘’His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people’’.

The Arabs were anything but happy with Lord Balfour; ‘’Palestine is Arab. It was Great Britain that rescued us from Turkish tyranny, and we do not believe that it will deliver us into the claws of the Jews’’. But Jews had been arriving in Palestine since the early 1880’s, with numbers increasing rapidly, and by 1936 made up almost one-third of the total population, 380,000. ‘’The Jews are advancing on all fronts. They keep buying land, they bring in immigrants legally and illegally’’. The Jewish leader David Ben-Gurion spoke thus to a leading Arab; ‘’This land is everything for the Jews. There is nothing else. For the Arabs, Palestine is only a small portion of the larger and numerous countries’’.

The Jews began developing the country at an astonishing rate, while investment opportunities abounded. Thousands of Arabs began to drift into Palestine from all around the Syrian province as work became available and the centuries-old face of stagnation was lifted. Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 was extremely menacing for the Jews, and two years later saw the largest influx of Jewish immigrants since Britain had been given the Mandate over Palestine by the League of Nations in 1920, with 65,000 arriving, most of them from Nazi Germany. The terms of the British Mandate were unworkable and could only be enforced by repressing either the Arabs or the Jews. The only solution appeared to be the creation of two sovereign states. Partition. The Arab Higher Committee did not agree with the decision, while the Arab National Defence Party did. Disorder erupted all over the country from late 1937.

In May of 1939 Britain issued a new White Paper on Palestine which stated that partition was out, and that Jewish immigration would be reduced to 75,000 over the next five years. It also provided for the establishment within ten years of an independent Palestine state, as it was not part of their policy ‘’that Palestine should become a Jewish state’’. Britain had changed its stance because, with war on the horizon, it would need Arab support, Arab oil, and the extremely important Suez Canal. This should have been a time of great rejoicing for the Palestinians, but their negative response to such a stunning reversal by the British made absolutely no sense at all.

Afterwards a Palestinian intellectual wrote ‘’Zionist opposition may have doomed the White Paper from the very start, but the Palestinians had, through their own reactions, lost the opportunity to enter the Mandatory administration at higher levels and prepare for their own postcolonial state. The price paid was increased social dislocation and political disorientation. It was short-sighted and irresponsible’’.

In January 1942 the Wannsee Conference in Berlin secretly drew up plans for Hitler’s ‘’Final Solution’’. Zionism had predicted the Holocaust many years previously, and now Jewish fighters began stepping up their campaign against British rule by planting bombs, robbing banks and assassinating policemen. During the summer of 1942 the Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini met with Hitler in Berlin, following which he visited Poland in order to view the extermination camps. Feeling that the German conquest of Palestine was inevitable he later presented Hitler with a plan to set up gas chambers in the Dothan Valley north of Nablus, inside the West Bank, where he could exterminate the Jews of any and all lands the Nazis conquered in the Middle East. Hitler never did get the chance to put the offer into action, although the Nazis generally regarded the Arabs with contempt, often referring to them as ‘’half-apes’’.

Following the defeat of Germany things remained relatively quite in Palestine until November 29th 1947, the date on which the United Nations voted to partition the country into Arab and Jewish states, backed by the US and the Soviet Union. Palestine opposed the idea, supported by all Arab countries. The proposed Jewish state was to encompass 55% of the country, including the mainly unpopulated Negev desert, while its population would consist of 500,000 Jews and 400,000 Arabs. Ben-Gurion declared ‘’We are a free people’’ as it would be a safe home for the remaining European Jews whose number had been reduced from 11 to 5 million by the Nazis. War erupted in November 1947 and continued for fifteen months, during which thousands died. Palestinian losses were around 13,000, while Egypt’s came to over 1,400. Iraqi and Jordanian losses were relatively small, and Israel’s came to 4,000 soldiers and 2,400 civilians.

During that war it became public knowledge that the Palestinians hid arms and ammunition inside mosques, schools, and hospitals in order to avoid detection. Every Arab defeat to the Israeli’s during those fifteen months, and there were many, were hailed as ‘’victories’’. No army had suffered more badly than Egypt’s, nonetheless it was given full control of the Gaza Strip. In July of 1949 when Israel signed an armistice agreement with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, it controlled 78% of Mandatory Palestine, far more than the 55% it had been granted. King Abdullah of Jordan took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and was assassinated in 1951.

In April of 1956 President Nasser of Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal, resulting in war a few months later, launched pre-emptively by Israel, in collusion with Britain and France. The battle was confined to the Sinai peninsula, which was captured by Israeli paratroopers and tanks within days, and held for over four months until US pressure forced the Israeli prime-minister to order a full withdrawal.

Fatah was founded in the late 1950’s, its intention being ‘’to liberate the whole of Palestine and restore it as it existed before 1948’’. At the same time President Nasser declared that the goal of all Arab states was ‘’the final liquidation of Israel’’. The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) came into being in 1964, calling for the total liberation of Palestine and self-determination within the borders of the British Mandate.

Fatah launched almost continuous raids into Israel from the West Bank throughout 1966 and into ‘67, and in June of that year came the ‘’six-day war’’ in which the Arab-Israeli conflict took a history-changing turn. While Egypt was engaged in making deployment moves on the morning of June 5th Israel performed a remarkable pre-emptive strike resulting in the destruction of most of the Egyptian air force, while it was still on the ground. At the same time an over-land offensive was launched into the Gaza Strip and yet another into the Sinai, with Syria and Jordan launching attacks on Israel at the behest of Nasser. When King Hussein of Jordan ordered his soldiers back across the Jordan river, Israel occupied the West Bank unopposed.

A further air strike by Israel took out most of Syria’s air force, while at the same time its ground forces captured the very strategic Golan Heights. A ceasefire was agreed on the sixth day by which time Israel had vastly increased the territory it controlled, now ruling over one million Palestinians. Military victory would turn out to have been the easy part, as it had never anticipated taking control of the West Bank. Israel’s left-wing minority campaigned for the newly conquered territories to be handed back, Gaza to Egypt and the West Bank to Jordan. That did not happen, but with the perception that it might do a number of Arab quarters were bulldozed to the ground on the Israeli side of the border with Jordan. A member of the IDF wrote ‘’The fields were turned to desolation before our eyes, and the children who dragged themselves along the road that day, weeping bitterly, will be the fedayeen of 19 years hence. That is how, that day, we lost the victory’’.

Shortly afterwards many Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza obtained work in Israel, where the economy was starting to boom, and within one year there were more than 6,000 such workers. By 1974 the figure had reached 68,000. ‘’Everyone could see the progress the Jews had been able to make’’. During the afternoon of October 6th 1973, the Jewish Day of Atonement, Egyptian and Syrian offensives erupted along the Suez Canal and on the Golan Heights, with tank battles, air strikes and artillery fights taking place on a vast scale. Israel slowly turned the tide and eight days later when a UN brokered ceasefire was agreed, its army was less than fifty miles from Cairo and very close to Damascus. It had also encircled the Egyptian Third Army on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal.

At an Arab summit in Morocco in 1974 all 21 states agreed to recognise the PLO as the ‘’sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people’’. Soon afterwards its leader Yasser Arafat appeared before the UN Assembly in New York where he offered Israel a choice between ‘’the gun and the olive branch’’, a major boost for Palestinian morale and a large political advance. It also produced a split in Palestinian unity, with some accepting Israel’s right to exist, and others urging its destruction.

In 1977 the President of Egypt Anwar Sadat signed a peace deal with Israel, resulting in the land it had lost to Israel in 1967 being returned. But a hoped-for wider Middle East settlement did not materialise, with Algeria, Libya, Syria and South Yemen severing all links with Egypt, and angry statements being issued by Syria and Iraq, together with a number of attacks on Egyptian embassies. Attacks on Israel also continued, and in June of 1982 Israeli forces moved into Lebanon in an attempt to completely destroy the PLO following rocker and artillery attacks on Israeli border towns and villages.

By now an entire Palestinian generation had grown up knowing nothing other than life under Israeli rule. As one young man explained ‘’My father was in his twenties in 1967, and told us that people had benefitted from the occupation, at least at first. The Jordanians had put a lot of pressure on us, then the Israeli’s came and let us work in Israel. Suddenly there was more money. No one wanted to revolt. But it didn’t mean that we liked Israel’’. Fighting continued, and in 1988 Yasser Arafat floated the idea of direct negotiations with Israel, calling for Palestinian independence within the boundaries established by the UN in 1947. This was immediately rejected by a majority of Palestinian leaders.

The Muslim Brotherhood was not happy with the new direction of the PLO, nor was the smaller group Islamic Jihad, which was affiliated with Fatah and had links to Iran. The radical Islamist organisation Hamas appeared on the scene, declaring that ‘’every drop of blood shall become a Molotov cocktail, a time bomb, and a roadside charge that will rip out the intestines of the Jews’’. In 2000 the Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, Yasser Arafat and President Clinton attended a summit at Camp David, but nothing came of it. During the following year Barak was replaced by Ariel Sharon, who decided to construct a wall between Israel and the West Bank in order to prevent suicide bombings.

In 2004 Sharon announced that he would withdraw all Israeli troops and settlements from the Gaza Strip, likely influenced by Barak’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 which had had been greeted by popular acclaim at home. Arafat passed away in a Paris hospital later that same year. During the summer of 2005 the evacuation of Gaza took place, although many of the settlers had to be removed by soldiers of the IDF while at the same time 2,800 settler homes were being razed to the ground by Israeli demolition crews. Hamas hung out banners proclaiming ‘’The blood of the martyrs has led to liberation’’.

By this time the Palestinian Authority was depending on EU and US aid, over one billion dollars a year, a remarkable amount, and used it to create a new elite, with new hotels, restaurants, apartment blocks, offices and villas transforming the town of Ramallah, while the situation for the ordinary people remained the same. Some of the money would later be used to construct tunnels running up to the Israeli border from inside the Strip. As PA corruption became only too obvious most of the people swung behind Hamas, ensuring that it defeated the ruling Fatah party in the 2006 elections. In the following year it took complete control of Gaza after a series of violent clashes with Fatah.

Rockets were being fired into Israel from Gaza throughout the summer of 2006, resulting in the IDF replying with shells and air raids. In support of Hamas the Hezbollah in southern Lebanon mounted raids on Israel’s northern border, provoking Israel into a ground invasion. The Gaza and Lebanon attacks had been launched from territories which Israel had recently withdrawn from unilaterally.

Two years later the head of the PA Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli prime-minister Ehud Olmert met, during which the latter offered a ‘’take-it-or-leave-it deal’’ that included an almost total withdrawal from the West Bank. Israel would retain 6.3% of the territory in order to keep control of the major settlements, with the Palestinians being compensated by a swap of equivalent Israeli land. The Old City of Jerusalem was also to be placed under international control. Abbas turned down the offer.

While the country was being hit by rocket fire from inside Gaza, in December 2008 Israel launched an attack that included troops, F16’s, helicopters and drones. The UN accused both sides of committing war-crimes, with Abbas urging Israel to ‘’continue the military campaign and overthrow Hamas’’. When Israel declared a ceasefire it appeared that there was no way out of the status quo. Gaza erupted once again in November 2012, ending eight days later with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that prevented yet another Israeli ground-invasion. At the time many people on both sides of the divide backed a two-state solution, with a poll taken in December of 2016 showing support from 55% of Israeli’s and 44% of Palestinians.

Then on the Jewish Day of Atonement October 7th 2023 Hamas attacked.

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As with most religions, Islam is a misogynistic sexist one. Hinduism is the one great exception, where women are held in equal honour to men. The Church of England allowing women to be ordained in 1994, while the first woman to ever receive full clergy rights occurred in 1956, in a Methodist Church in Pennsylvania. Judaism is the worlds oldest religion, and has been around for almost 4,000 years.

The Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian church, with 1.39 billion baptised Catholics worldwide as of 2024. Although completely excluded from the hierarchy since its inception, nowadays women are playing significant roles in the life of the Catholic Church. It is also said that motherhood and family have been given an exalted status, and that the marital infidelity of men is seen as being equally sinful to that of women! There’s progress.

In times gone by when young unmarried women presented themselves in a pregnant state, unless they had the good sense to get out of the country and the financial means to do so they were shipped off to institutions that took in such outcasts. And outcasts they were, taken care of by nuns at the behest of the Catholic Church. No exalted status then for motherhood and family. They were the sinners. The men who had impregnated them were never heard of, and neither church nor state demanded that they be named, whether boyfriends or close family members. Back then the church had always proclaimed that ‘’The family that prays together, stays together’’.

While not every Catholic living in Northern Ireland is an IRA supporter, its also certain that not every Muslim in the world supports Hamas. Back in 1987 the then Israeli prime-minister Yitzhak Shamir stated that compromise with the Palestinians was not possible, as there ‘’was a form of warfare against Israel, and against the Arabs who want to live in peace with us’’.

The Koran is the revelations of God (Allah) to the prophet Mohammed, and is interpreted differently depending on which Muslim one speaks to. Some will say that the Koran is peaceful, that it simply instructs Muslims to ‘’call non-believers to Islam’’. However, more militant Muslims say that if non-believers fail to convert then they must be fought, or killed! As in any translation the original language is not always easy to render into English, and some translations of the Koran use more temperate language than others. The Muslim world itself contains many people from both sides of the divide, temperate and militant. Some translations read ‘’Allah is the enemy of the unbelievers’’. ‘’O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends’’. ‘’Those who disbelieved from among the children of Israel were cursed’’.

The Palestinian religious, academic and political elites teach an ideology of virulent hatred of the Jews, with their killing being presented both as a religious obligation, and as a necessary self defence for all of mankind. Allah is said to have sent a message through the prophet Mohammed that killing a Jew is a necessary step to bring resurrection. ‘’Kill a Jew, and go to heaven’’. The Palestinian Authority elites have built a three-stage case against Jewish existence. Stage 1; The collective labelling of Jews as the enemies of Allah. Stage 2 teaches that because of their immutable traits, Jews represent an existential danger to all humanity. Stage 3 presents the necessary solution; the annihilation of the Jews, as a service to god and mankind.

Ahmad Abu Halabiyah, Rector of Advanced Studies at the Islamic University, had this to say in 2005 on PA television; ‘’We Muslims have ruled the world (certainly, a large part of it during the Ottoman Empire) in the past, and a day will come, by Allah, when we shall rule the world again. We shall rule America, Britain, we shall rule the entire world. The Jews will not live under our rule agreeably and permanently, since they have been treacherous in nature throughout history. We shall have relief from the Jews. Listen to your Beloved who tells you about the most dire end awaiting the Jews’’.

In 2011 Atallah Abu Al-Subh, former Hamas Minister of Culture, stated ‘’The Jews are the most despicable and contemptible nation to crawl upon the face of the earth, because they have displayed hostility to Allah’’. In 2009 Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar proclaimed that Hamas ‘’must lay the foundation for a tomorrow without Zionists’’, while one year on he was boasting ‘’We have liberated Gaza, but have we recognised Israel? Have we given up our lands occupied in 1948? We will not recognise the Israeli enemy’’.

There are many striking parallels between most of the Palestine Authority statements and the old Nazi ideology, as Hitler had used similar justification for his hatred of the Jews. And while the Palestinian Authority does not hide its plans the world remains apathetic, which is a clear repetition of the world’s indifference to Hitler’s open call for genocide back in the day. Justice Robert H. Jackson, who took part in the Nuremberg trials, remarked back then ‘’When the Nazi plans were boldly proclaimed, they were so extravagant that the world refused to take them seriously’’. Or could it have been that most of the world simply didn’t care?

The Muslim population is growing twice as fast as every other, and its predicted that Islam will be the largest religion in the world by 2050. Hopefully many will not adhere to Ahmad Abu Halabiyah’s desire for world domination, and not heed his genocidal warning to the Jews. But these are worrying times, even well beyond the shores of Palestine. Jews are the primary target of the worldwide far-right white supremacist movement, and in the US for some time now more than half the yearly hate-crimes have been anti-Jewish. Jews remain hated in Russia today still, although the official party-line is that antisemitism is no longer tolerated. Wishful thinking!

Even though Labour won the 2024 British general-election they did lose a number seats that they had expected to win, mainly because they were abandoned by Muslim voters who had no intention of supporting an MP who saw Israel as having any right to exist. Intimidation of many Labour candidates was rife in the run-up to the election, with numerous meetings disrupted by masked pro-Palestinian thugs. Someone once said ‘’Immigrants are welcomed into our culture, but not against it’’. Truly insightful.

The basic canon of Arab life was once described thus ‘’Me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; the tribe against the world, and all of us against the infidel’’. The ‘’infidel’’ being someone who rejects all religious belief.

The terrorist Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, who on New Years Day last drove a pick-up truck along Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing fourteen people and injuring 38 others, was a Muslim who had recently joined ISIS. Prior to the attack he made a video recording in which the father-of-three commented on his recent divorce, and the fact that he had first intended to kill his entire family, but changed his mind over concerns that the resulting media coverage would not focus on the ‘’war between the believers and disbelievers’’. At his home in Houston, Texas, Jabbar had left a copy of the Koran open at a passage reading ‘’They fight in Allah’s cause, and slay and are slain; a promise binding’’. It is a time for us all to think about what’s happening in the world! Time to wake up and smell the coffee.

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During the summer of 2024 the Irish President Michael D. Higgins wrote a letter to the newly appointed President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian wishing him well in his new role, while also mentioning Iran’s role in the ‘’struggle for peace’’. He went on to offer ‘’the condolences of the people of Ireland for the death of your predecessor President Raisi’’, describing his death as a ‘’tragic accident’’. In real life Raisi’s nickname was ‘’The Butcher of Tehran’’, and he had been responsible for the brutal torture and mass murder of political dissidents. His victims, numbered in the thousands, included many children.

There was criticism of the letter by some people in Ireland, a number of citizens, TD’s and senators, but it was hardly overwhelming. As one of those ‘’people of Ireland’’ referred to, I was personally disgusted by that fawning letter from President Higgins. While the state of Qatar supports and partly finances Hamas, Iran is the real bogey-man in the Middle East. Ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that country has been exporting its revolution abroad, and now controls more than twelve militias and terror-groups across the region, in Iraq, Syria (until recently), Palestine, southern Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, and elsewhere. It supports, finances and trains Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, together with other smaller groups, and is regarded as ‘’the foremost state sponsor of terrorism’’, while one of its main aims is to completely eliminate the state of Israel. Along with asserting its control across the ‘’Shi’ite Crescent’’ in the Middle East, it has also interfered in US elections, and hires criminals to assassinate regime foes abroad. While the fall of Assad’s regime in Syria had been a set-back, if something is not done to remove the threat of Iran there will never be peace in the Middle East.

President Higgins received full support from the Irish prime minister Simon Harris and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Martin, with the latter claiming that it was a ‘’standard’’ letter and also mentioning that ‘’diplomacy is the key to ending all of this war and all of this conflict’’. How sending a praise-letter to a state that murders its own citizens, while also sponsoring terrorism throughout the region, and expect it to work wonders on the dreadful ongoing situation is a complete mystery.

Martin also claimed that he had ‘’made it clear’’ to the Iranian Foreign Minister that he should use his influence to urge restraint, so as to prevent an escalation of violence in the region. That would have gone down like a lead balloon throughout the corridors of the theocracy. The idea that Iran was about to solve the problems in the Middle East shows how completely out of touch both Michael Martin and the President were with what was happening in the real world. Innocents abroad!

When the letter became public knowledge President Higgins claimed that it had been ‘’circulated from the Israeli Embassy’’ in Dublin, but in fact it had been released to the media by the Iranian Embassy in London on July 28th, was then published on the X account of the Iranian Embassy in Dublin, while also popping up on Iran’s Department of Foreign Affairs website. The Hamas leadership was also pleased, calling the letter ‘’a reward’’. The President then attempted to shift the blame elsewhere by stating that much of the text of the letter had been supplied to him by the Department of Foreign Affairs. So, it was all the fault of some unknown civil-servant?

Prime minister Simon Harris also contributed his six-pence worth; ‘’I think the Israeli Embassy should be focusing on other things than amplifying, circulating or referencing a letter that does really conform with normal diplomatic protocol between heads of state’’. A number of international protests regarding the letter were made, but probably the best articulated one came from the Director of ‘’Stand With Us’’ Michael Dickson ‘’This is what Ireland’s leadership stands for? Know-towing to this despotic Jihadist terror regime? For shame’’.

As Christmas 2024 approached the feeling of goodwill disappeared entirely when President Higgins hosted a credential ceremony for the Ambassador of the State of Palestine Jilan Abdaljamid at his mansion in the Phoenix Park, following which he commented on the Israeli-Gaza war. In response, the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich accused him of making misinformed comments on the war, and that ‘’there is an unconscious bias against Israel in Ireland’’. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar went further, calling President Higgins ‘’an antisemitic liar’’ and stating that Dublin ‘’encouraged’’ antisemitism under a prime minister who hated Jews, which prompted the latter into replying‘’I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel’’. The Irish Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney proclaimed ‘’I think Michael D. Higgins has reflected the view of many in Ireland’’.

President Higgins continued the duel, ‘’To announce in advance that you will break international law, and to do so on an innocent population, it reduces all the code that was there from second world war on protection of civilians, and it reduces it to tatters..........To say that the Irish people are anti-Semitic is a deep slander’’.

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Yes, there are international laws on the protection of civilians during wars, although the first Geneva Convention which took place in 1864 dealt entirely with the care of the wounded during conflicts. The far more over-reaching ‘’Hague Conventions’’ were adopted at the Peace Conferences held in the Netherlands in 1899 and 1907, and established the laws of war in the strict sense by defining the rules that belligerents must follow during hostilities. The 1949 Geneva Convention expanded and updated the previous Geneva and Hague Conventions. The term ‘’war crime’’ was first used in 1906

President Higgins’ comment on the ‘’code’’ that was there for the protection of civilians during the 2nd World War was an interesting aside. However, despite those rules of war covering the protection of non-militants, does the President have any idea of the amount of civilian causalities during that particular war? Total military deaths came to 15 million, while more than 38 million civilians died. From the day of the Normandy landings on June 6th 1944 to the arrival of the Allied Army in Paris nearly three months later, almost 30,000 French civilians lost their lives as the Nazi’s and the Allies battled it out. Was that a war crime? Once a war commences civilians loose their lives, intentionally or not! Its a fact of life. A fact of war. Total French civilian deaths during that war came to over 60,000.

In Japan the total loss of life during the 2nd World War was 2,521,000, of which 672,000 were civilians. And while the US Air Force dropped two atomic bombs towards the end of the conflict, prior to those events Tokyo and other cities had been bombed, causing some100,000 deaths in the capital alone, almost the same amount of deaths as occurred later in Hiroshima. Were they war crimes? Germany lost 4.3 million military personnel during the war, while civilian deaths came to somewhere between 350,000 and 500,000. War crimes? Britain lost over 60,000 civilians during the war, mainly because of Nazi bombing early in the war, and because of the V-weapon attacks near the end. War crimes?

While there is a percentage of Palestinian Arabs who would be willing to live in peace with the Jews, there is a majority that might never do so, and no matter what politicians from other countries say that will remain so for the foreseeable future. Israel is a small state of almost ten million people surrounded by tens of millions of mainly hostile and unforgiving Arabs, whom it hopes to keep at bay forever. Sheer weight of numbers and a Muslim society that perpetuates hatred makes that extremely difficult. For Israel to survive it has had to establish the principle of retaliation to any attack or encroachment, and despite the vast amount of ignorance that has been shown by many politicians, that is the reality of the situation.

The persecution of the Jews that had been on-going for centuries, and which led to the decision to return to their biblical home in 1882 has being mentioned earlier in this article, and when Hitler gained power in 1933 there was no great welcome being offered to them anywhere in the world. The 19th century Jew longed to return to Palestine, a feeling that had always been re-emphasised in the yearly Yom Kippur prayer greeting ‘’Next year in Jerusalem’’. They had simply taken flight from the horrors of Christian Europe. The people who share the blame for their isolation were our forefathers who promulgated anti-Semitism, the pogrom’s in the Soviet Union, the rise of Hitler, and his desire to wipe out every European Jew!

While the invasion of Israel was ongoing on October 7th the head of the Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh stated; ‘’Get out of our land. Get out of our city of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and our Al-Aqsa mosque. There is no place of safety for you’’. No mention there of a two-state-solution as is being proposed by many countries, simply the same old Arab hatred of the Jews and their refusal to allow them to exist in their ancestral lands.

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In 2024 Ireland gave 36 million Euros in support of Ukraine, an admirable contribution. But the government does not agree in supplying arms, ammunition, or anything else to do with helping the country fight Putin’s Russian. Its good that the US and most European countries do so, because if we were the only country supporting Ukraine they would have run out of fighting equipment by now, and been completely over-run by the Russians. Neutrality is good, but it can be taken too far at times.

Russia has been carrying out a genocidal war in the Ukraine from the very beginning, as newsreel pictures attest to, where Red Army tanks were seen firing rockets at apartment buildings. That type of attack remains ongoing after almost three years. The execution of civilians with hands tied behind their backs was common for a time, so also is the shooting dead of surrendering Ukrainian solders, also captured on newsreel. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte recently commented that Russia is conducting ‘’an intensifying campaign of hybrid attacks across our allied territories, interfering directly in our democracies, sabotaging industry and committing violence’’.

On Christmas Day 2024 a cable carrying electricity from Finland to Estonia was severed in the Baltic Sea, while four other submarine cables carrying data were damaged. In attempting to find the culprits Finnish authorities seized a tanker believed to be part of the ‘’Shadow Fleet’’ Russia uses to export oil and gas, in violation of Western sanctions. Earlier that same month a Chinese ship was believed to have cut two other data cables in Swedish waters, at Moscow’s request. Russia was also suspected of attempting to plant incendiary devices on a cargo plane in Germany last year; of plotting to kill the head of a major German company manufacturing weapons for Ukraine; committing arson attacks in Poland, Britain and Germany, and interfering in elections in Romania and Moldova, among other countries. It also dispatches mercenaries to Africa and the Middle East to plunder resources and prop up warlords. All designed to regain the power it lost following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

China has been accused internationally of carrying out genocide against its 12 million Uighur citizens, where for a time up to one million were being put through so-called ‘’re-educational centres’’ each year. All women of child-bearing age were forceable sterilised! China uses three types of warfare; psychological, media and law-fare, and unlawfully asserts control over the South China Sea by concocting spurious historical arguments, building artificial reefs, and sending armed ‘’fishing boats’’ to harass and chase away mariners from other nations. It also provides help to Russia in its Ukraine adventure, and at this moment in time it owns 7% of the total land mass in Africa.

In Syria, those who were opposed to the dictator Bashar al-Assad began to organise large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies, part of the ‘’Arab Spring’’ protests throughout the region in 2011. Rebel groups formed, such as the Free Syrian Army, supported by Turkey and some Western countries. Significant advances were made for a time against the government, but in 2014 Iran decided to help the regime, while a year later Russia came on board, introducing chemical warfare. By late 2018 government forces were in control of most of the country. Even the ‘’Hermit Kingdom’’ of North Korea is engaged in hybrid warfare, including cyberattacks and supplying munitions and troops for Russia’s use in Ukraine. Russia, Iran, China and North Korea are the problem countries today.

It is true that the Irish government objected to the activities of the Chinese dictatorship against its Muslim minority of Uighur’s. Possible genocide. And also against Russia’s activities in the Ukraine. Possible genocide. And also to the slaughter of Syrian citizens by that countries dictatorship. Possible genocide. But when it comes to Israel the gloves are fully removed, and there is no end to the criticism. The loss of life in any war is dreadful and heartbreaking, and the loss of life in Gaza and Lebanon is no different. Defending your state in order to hold on to life itself is a dreadful position to find oneself in, and it can also force the victim to carry out acts that go completely against its nature.

Golda Meir’s statement from decades ago is one of the most truthful and heart-wrenching comments ever made by any politician. It is worth repeating; ‘’When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us’’. That short speech contains more truth on the Palestinian situation than a million other speeches have. And to show impartiality, that same chain-smoking Meir has often been referred to as a ‘’racist who oversaw war crimes’’.

Many years ago the current Israeli prime-minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an equally telling comment; ‘’It the Arabs laid down their weapons today, there would be peace. If the Jews laid down their weapons today, there would be no Israel’’. He is popular today with the majority of Israeli citizens, although prior to October 7th  was not doing so well as he attempted to alter laws in order to protect himself and his reputation, resulting in mass-protests. Relatives of many of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas are unhappy that he did not do more earlier on to secure their release. A very sensitive issue obviously, but his speech contains as much truth as that of Meir’s.

On the other side of the coin, most Arab spokespersons find great difficulty in speaking so truthfully. Following repeated unguided rocket salvos on northern Israel by Hezbollah from inside southern Lebanon throughout most of 2024, which resulted in over 100 deaths and some 63,000 citizens being displaced, Israel finally retaliated on the ground and in the air on September 23rd. Hundreds were killed during the first few days, including many members of Hezbollah, many of their wives and children, and many civilians. A BBC reporter interviewed the Mayor of Beirut Abdallah Darwish who spoke passionately of the Israeli murderers, not once making even a passing reference to Hezbollah. It was as though they did not exist. As though the Jews had decided early one morning, having nothing better to do on that particular day, they would simply bomb the shit out of Lebanon. So much for honest speaking!

Its only too obvious that thousands of people have died inside the Gaza Strip since the Israel retaliated to the October 7th massacre. The exact figures are unknown, as those provided are cleared by Hamas first and foremost, and are undoubtedly massaged so as to show the Israeli’s in as bad a light as possible. But even allowing for that, the figures are appalling. Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah have all been accused of war-crimes. Up to the end of ‘24 the figures provided were 46,000 deaths inside Gaza. Hamas does not provide any figures for its dead fighters, although the Israeli’s claim around 17,000. That figure may also be somewhat massaged for propaganda purposes, but there is no doubt that they have made significant in-roads on the original figure of somewhere around 25,000.

There are many Arabs who blame Hamas for bringing hell down on the Palestinians, and there were many Gazans who opposed Hamas’s missile strikes, and who found themselves facing threats, punishment beatings, and even murder, for doing so. In November 2024 Professor Salman al-Dayah, former dean of the sharia school at Islam University in Gaza, issued a fatwa (religious opinion) condemning Hamas for the October 7th attack, arguing that it should not have gone ahead because of its likely consequences for Palestinians. (Not for any other reason, mind you.) He added that Hamas had failed in its obligations of ‘’keeping fighters away from the homes of defenceless civilians and their shelters’’.

Early in the war Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas politburo member, stated that the groups tunnels were built to ensure the survival of its fighters, and only them. At the same time Yahya Sinwar, the October 7th architect, described the loss of Palestinian civilians as a ‘’necessary sacrifice’’. In July of 2024 when Israeli intelligence received information regarding the whereabouts of Mohammed Delf, the head of Hamas’s armed wing, the resultant bombing killed not only the target but almost 200 others, with the vast majority of them civilians. Hamas was reluctant to admit that Delf had been killed in the strike, not least because he was evidently hiding in a tented camp full, mainly, of refugees.

Throughout the war Hamas has relied on western media outlets to recite the grim figures regarding civilians killed in their homes, without considering how the movement was deliberately creating such ‘’necessary sacrifices’’. Sinwar was wrong in his expectations; that the shock of a massive assault would cause Israel to collapse; that the wider Arab world would rise up in support; that Israel would not have the stomach to mount a large-scale sustained invasion; and that taking a large number of hostages would paralyse them. It is becoming evident that support for Hamas has fallen substantially since the war began, with a survey recently carried out by ‘’Arab World’’ suggesting that only 16% of Gazans would vote for them if there were elections to the Palestinian parliament currently.

While Hamas numbers have been vastly reduced, will a few thousand men armed with Kalashnikovs willing to brutalise their fellow Gazans ensure that it remains in control? That is the 64,000 dollar question. Israeli thinking was to unleash such destruction that Gazans would not think of mounting a similar assault ever again, or at least for the very foreseeable future. Their hope now is that they have achieved their objective. As a quid pro quo with President Trump on a cessation of operations inside the Strip, Netanyahu has apparently been promised US support in dealing with the on-going problem of Iran’s attempts to develop a nuclear bomb. While it continues to boost its production of enriched uranium only the US have the bunker-busting bombs required to target the deep underground centrifuges used in its production. Israel’s strikes that were carried out last October destroyed a large part of Iran’s air defence system, so all bets are off on that one.

The problem in the Middle East is not simply the fact that Israel wishes to survive, but that they have to defend themselves in order to do so. Some Arabs wish to live in peace with the Jews, but the majority hate them with all the intensity that Islam preaches. Some countries understand and accept the situation. Some countries do not understand the situation, and seek simplistic solutions. Some countries wish Israel well, while some countries wish it to be wiped off the face of the earth. Anti-Semitism is not dead, and never has been. But it remains dormant for long or brief periods.

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Last December President Higgins accused Benjamin Netanyahu of breaching international law by its attack on Gaza, and also of breaching ‘’the sovereignty of three of his neighbours, in relation to Lebanon, Syria, and would like in fact actually to have a settlement in Egypt’’.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah Shia terrorist group, who advocates Shia empowerment globally, had been attacking northern Israel from southern Lebanon on and off since it was founded in 1982. Last year it commenced firing rockets into the region from early on, causing over 100 deaths and ensuring that some 63,000 Israeli’s had to flee their homes. Near the end of September Israel finally reacted, sending in ground forces and bomber planes to eliminate the terrorists. Referring to the action as simply a breaching of Lebanon’s sovereignty shows a total ignorance of the situation.

The Israeli Foreign Minister Sa’ar explained the reason for the Lebanon incursion, while also commenting on the other matters brought up by President Higgins. Regarding Syria, he stated that Israel entered the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights after rebel groups in Syria took Damascus on December 8th, in order to prevent the threat of radical Islamists against its own citizens and communities. It was a temporary defensive move that would last only until security could be guaranteed along the frontier. Israel has no desire to get involved in the conflict in Syria’’. Hardly a breach of sovereignty there!

As for Egypt; ‘’In the context of our peace agreement with Egypt, Israel withdrew from a huge area, all of the Sinai Desert, and uprooted all of its communities there. This peace agreement has been maintained since 1979’’. Enough said!

In June of 2022, a member of the Irish Senate claimed that ’’Ireland has a proud history of supporting the protection of human rights across the world’’. Is that so?

In 1939 the Irish government decided to remain neutral during the 2nd World War, a decision that was supported by the opposition parties. One exception was the Fine Gael TD James Dillon, who was ridiculed by prime minister Eamon de Valera because of his support for the Allies, and who also earned the hatred of the German Minister to Ireland Eduard Hempel, who not only called him a ‘’German hater’’ but also the worst name that he could conjure up, a ‘’Jew’’. Not to be outdone some months later government minister Frank Aiken made the remark that ‘’Ireland has nothing to fear from a German victory’’.

There was worse to come, in July of 1943 when, during his maiden speech, newly elected Independent TD Oliver J. Flanagan urged the government to emulate the Nazis and ‘’rout the Jews out of this country’’. At that time when the German killing-machine had moved into top-gear the Jewish population in this country was at the staggering height of 3,500 individuals, most of them living in the capital city. It was also government policy that Jewish refugees would not be allowed into the country during the war.

In 1948 the Department of Justice got around to explaining its decision not to take in Jews, thus; ‘’It has always been the policy of the Minister For Justice to restrict the admission of Jewish aliens, for the reason that any substantial increase in our Jewish population might give rise to an antisemitic problem’’. So, the antisemitic Department of Justice was worried that the small level of antisemitism already in situ, because of the small number of Jews in situ, might have become a real problem! Wonderful. How very considerate of it.

The Irish ambassador to Germany Charles Bewley made certain that no Jew would be allowed to slip into Ireland, and even denied any ‘’deliberate cruelty’’ by the German government on the Jews, at a time when a blind man could see what was happening there. Chief Rabbi Herzog and Fianna Fail TD Robert Briscoe appealed to de Valera to grant entry to a number of individual Jews, but permission was denied. At some stage of the war Oliver J. Flanagan asked de Valera if there were plans to take in 500 Jewish children from France. Under pressure de Valera denied that the children were actually Jews. In the end the children were not taken in, and were left to their fate.

The famous Irish writer and essayist Hubert Butler spent the pre-war years working in Vienna, helping Jews to escape to safety. Post war he did similar work for Jews in Yugoslavia, and later criticised the Catholic Church there for the support it had given to the Nazi-installed puppet regime during the conflict. For his reward he was roundly attacked by the Catholic church in Ireland because of his remarks, receiving little or no support at home, and even ostracized in his home town of Kilkenny. President Sean T. O’Kelly attempted to have his application for a passport renewal turned down.

Almost a year after the ending of the Second World War prime minister de Valera allowed 100 Jewish orphans from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp into the country, over-riding his own Department of Justice to do so. Its possible that the extreme criticism he had received following his actions on the death of Hitler in the previous year played a large part in his decision.

There are antisemites in almost every country throughout the world, sometimes a low percentage, sometimes high. It has always been so, and its very likely that it will always remain so. But countries do not list themselves as pro or anti Jew, and a straw-poll would not provide an honest answer. It was nice of the President to defend everyone because of something that he and Simon Harris had said, but who knows what the percentage of antisemiticism in this country actually is? During the years 1904 and 1906 an economic boycott was waged against the small Jewish community in the city of Limerick, which resulted in assaults, stone throwing, and intimidation. Many Jews departed the city because of the intimidation.

Close to the end of the war, and shortly after Hitler committed suicide, prime minister de Valera called into the German Ligation in Dublin in order to offer his condolences, and, no doubt, ‘’the condolences of the Irish people’’. President Douglas Hyde called the very next day on a similar mission. De Valera apologist’s have always insisted that international diplomatic protocol dictates that a country send condolences when the head of state of another country with which it has diplomatic relations dies in office. Which is true. But really? Condolences on the death of a fascist who had been attempting to over-run Europe and annihilate the Jews?

Switzerland was also neutral but did not follow de Valera’s embarrassing action, claiming that it had not been officially informed of Hitler’s death. No country had been so informed. The Nazis had far too much on their hands at the time to even attempt such parlour games. Neutral Portugal did fly its flag at half-staff, but got away with it because it had allowed the Allies the use of bases in the Azores for the duration of the war. Spain’s Foreign Minister payed a condolence visit to its German Embassy, but had the good sense to keep that information away from the media. On the other hand was Spain really neutral? At the commencement of the war it serviced and supplied German U-boats and ships, and remained doing so until Britain protested that it was breaking neutrality laws. Spain even sent a military unit of 15,000 soldiers to fight in Russia alongside the Nazis! None returned.

From 2020 onwards Ireland kept extremely quiet about China’s treatment of its Uyghur population. At one point the Chinese Embassy in Dublin opposed the idea of any our elected representatives meeting the president of the World Uyghur Congress Dolkun Isa when he visited Leinster House. A hand-full of TD’s and senators decided to ignore the implied threats, and went to hear him speak. The Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney and officials from his department refused to meet Isa. MEP Mike Wallace said reports of what was happening in China were ‘’grossly exaggerated’’.

Every country protects its trade-deals, and Ireland is no different as it seeks to hold on to its lucrative Chinese beef-market, and we also import a massive amount of goods from there. Ah, the triumph of commerce over humanity! The British, French and Dutch parliaments denounced what was happening in China, describing it as ‘’genocide’’. So much for our ‘’proud record of supporting the protection of human rights across the world’’.

And then there was the strike by 11 Dunnes Stores workers from its Henry Street branch in Dublin, which commenced in July of 1984 and lasted until April 1987. The workers refused to handle fruits and vegetables originating in South Africa in protest against the apartheid system operating in that country. The Irish government eventually decided to support the protesters and ban the items, but only after almost three years of stonewalling, and having discovering that the public’s mood had altered. No sign there of the ‘’protection of human rights across the world’’. During the 33 month strike the workers existed on a 21 Euro weekly strike-pay, were beaten by the police, abused by picket breakers, condemned by the church, followed to their homes by the Special Branch, spat at, and victimised by their employer.

Trade-deals are trade deals, and every country indulges, while there is almost always a quid pro quo in return. There was certainly one involved in the cosy Ireland-China relationship. Even inside the hallowed halls of the United Nations building in New York trade deals have often been honoured by some dubious voting practices, particularly by countries depending on the unlimited supply of Arab oil. As the poet wrote ‘’No man is an island, Entire of itself; Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main’’.

The Irish government recently announced that it will support South Africa’s legal action against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which they filed in December of 2023, alleging that Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza amounted to genocide. At the same time South Africa had also referred the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which late in 2024 issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and two Hamas leaders Yoav Gallant and Mohammed Deif (already dead), alleging ‘’criminal responsibility’’ for war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 2023 ‘’Human Rights Watch’’ had concluded that the Hamas attack on October 7th amounted to war crimes.

Back in July of 2023, months after Russia had commenced its invasion of the Ukraine, seventeen African countries attended a Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, where numerous trade-deals were cut and where Putin magnanimously decided to forgive 23 billion dollars of African debt. Amongst many world leaders, the Summit was attended by South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and the Chairperson of the African Union.

Along with China, Russia’s creeping influence over Africa has become only too obvious, with most African countries greatly preoccupied with protecting their own national interests, resulting in some strange decisions being taken inside the United Nations building. Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and after the first round of sanctions had been imposed on it by the EU, Putin was seeking new geopolitical partners and business opportunities, and he found them mainly in Africa. When a UN resolution was proposed condemning the annexation of Crimea, Russia received the backing of most African countries and the resolution was voted down. Africa also came to its aid in 2022 when a resolution was proposed decrying Russia’s attempted annexation of four Ukrainian regions, with a similar result.

Many decisions arrived at inside the UN building are made because of self-interest, not for any higher motive. Arab oil has always played a large part, as has been demonstrated on numerous occasions. One such occasion was when Britain decided to cancel the Balfour Declaration shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, because it needed Arab support. Ireland’s recent ignoring of genocide in China is simply yet another such glaring example.

Ireland’s imports from Russia in 2022 amounted to 352 million dollars, including fertilisers and refined petroleum. Whatever about the Irish governments view on the Gaza war, siding with South Africa’s hypocritical condemnation of Israel, while at the same time hardly mentioning Russia’s entirely unprovoked invasion of the Ukraine gains this country the same sobriquet. Little mention of China. Little mention of Russia. Not so with Israel. It should be noted that if every country in the world decided not to supply Israel with arms, the end result would be no Israel. Not everyone would cry.

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There has and always will be much talk about ‘’war-crimes’’, with many countries condemning other countries for having indulged in such acts. Are any of those condemnations acts of hypocrisy? Let us take a brief look at the Irish civil war. There is no doubt that the Black ‘n’ Tans and Auxiliaries committed many acts of mayhem and murder in Ireland while they were here. However, during the civil war both sides accused the other of being even worse than the Tans, which turned out to be completely true. As a country we are wonderful when it comes to criticising others for their crimes, or perceived crimes, while completely ignoring our own. ‘’There is nothing civil about a civil war’’.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty that was signed in December of 1921 conferred dominion status on the 26 counties, akin to that of Canada and other former colonies, and gave the people an independent state within the British empire, with its own army, police, and control over taxation and foreign affairs. But the lack of a Republic, and the indignity of having to swear an oath to the King, was not accepted by many in the IRA, although a number of those on the anti-treaty side had sworn that very same oath when joining the army. However, when the Treaty was accepted by the Dail and by over 78% of the public in a general election some months later all hell broke loose, with the IRA splitting into pro and anti sections. (One writer claim that Collins had signed the Treaty ‘’with reluctance’’ is completely untrue.)

The results of a local election held in 1920 showed that the electorate was by no means committed to an Irish Republic, but none of that mattered to Eamon de Valera, who, despite the fact that he did not control the anti-treaty IRA, made a number of fiery speeches which almost certainly inspired many young people to take up arms. He had known for some time that the British were not going to accept a republic and prior to the London negotiations asked Arthur Griffith to get him out of the strait-jacket of the republic, while shortly afterwards advising Griffith that ‘’there may have to be scapegoats’’.

Dominion status was what Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith and the others had finally agreed on, there was simply no more to be obtained at that point in time. But Collins in particular, from an historical prospective, knew that it would eventually lead to self-determination, and saw it simply as a ‘’stepping-stone’’. (The idea that the plenipotentiaries did not have the right to accept the Treaty is often claimed, but has no basis in fact. Even de Valera on the very first day of the Dail debate acknowledged that they did so. The word plenipotentiary itself confers ‘’full powers’’.)

De Valera made many speeches at the time, including one where he stated that those opposed to the Treaty might ‘’have to wade through the blood of the soldiers of the Irish Government, and perhaps through that of some members of the Irish Government to get their freedom’’. He knew that Britain had no intention of conceding a Republic, but by this stage his ego had been badly bruised by the Dail’s acceptance of the Treaty, and also by the same chambers vote to replace him as President of Dail Eireann. There was also the lack of enthusiasm for his own alternative treaty, ‘’Document Number 2’’.

The civil war commenced on June 28th in Dublin city, and what often amounted to open fighting continued for a week, resulting in the destruction of many buildings. Deaths amounted to 29 Free State soldiers, 15 anti-treaty IRA members, over 40 civilians, around 300 injured, and more than 700 taken prisoner. There were a number of instances where the pro-Treaty side alleged ‘’dirty tricks’’ by the other side, including the use of white flags in what turned out to be false surrenders, and also the use of Red Cross vans to carry ammunition.

In most parts of the country the anti-Treaty side found that they were fighting without local support, which had been vitally important during the War of Independence. They resorted to raiding banks and post offices as they were short of guns, ammunition and money, while the looting and commandeering of supplies made them extremely unpopular. The National Army consisted of many half-trained and inexperienced men, but despite that by the end of July, and with the exception of Cork city, almost all the important urban centres were in pro-Treaty hands. Two seaborne expeditions were planned for Cork and Kerry early in August, with the Dublin Guard, the National Army’s first unit commanded by Paddy O’Daly, spearheading the offensive. The landings were successful, and even though there was some tough fighting, within a week Cork city and most of the important towns were in government hands.

The President of the Dail, Arthur Griffith, died of a stroke on August 12th, but it was the death ten days later of Michael Collins, Chairman of the Provisional Government and commander-in-chief of the National Army, in an ambush in his native county Cork in Beal na mBlath, located on the Bandon to Cork road, which would transform the war into an out-and-out blood feud. There had been a previous attempt on his life a week earlier in Dublin city when his official car was caught in an ambush in Stillorgan, resulting in his driver being wounded. But Collins himself was not in the car on that particular day. While there were regrets at his passing inside his own county, elsewhere it was looked upon simply as the death of a traitor who had sold-out his country.

Two days prior to the ambush and about two miles from Beal na mBlath an anti-Treaty IRA meeting was held in a local farmhouse, those attending included Liam Lynch, a number of top-ranking Republicans, some local Brigade leaders, Eamon de Valera and Erskine Childers. On the day of Collins’ death de Valera was informed of the intended ambush and pleaded that it not take place, claiming that it had been arranged for him to meet Collins in order to conduct peace talks. His request was refused. At that time there is no doubt that both Collins and de Valera were seeking ways in which to end the war, along with the help of a number of Republicans willing to defy Lynch. But some months later de Valera decided to take a more hard-line attitude.

The knowledge that an ambush had been prepared was an open secret in the area, and included a relation of Collins’ who was working close to Beal na mBlath on the day. The information was passed down the line, and eventually reached the man himself whose reaction was to shrug and say ‘’They’d never attack me’’. He felt safe in his native county.

In the wake of Collins’ death many army troops were especially brutal in Cork and Kerry, where members of the Dublin Guard were accused of killing prisoners in reprisal. Up to the time of his death Collins had been seeking a way to end the conflict, but his colleagues in the army and government were not be of a similar mind, simply seeing the defeat of the anti-treaty side as their only option. In early August Liam Lynch Chief-of-Staff of the anti-treaty IRA had written to Collins stating that ‘’defensive action will cease when the Provisional Government attacks on us cease’’, prompting the reply ‘’The time for face-saving is passed, the choice is between the return of the British, and the Irregulars (anti-Treaty) sending in their arms to the people’s government’’.

W. T. Cosgrave took over as government leader and Minister for Finance, while Kevin O’Higgins was appointed Vice-President of the Executive Council and Minister for Justice, with Richard Mulcahy becoming Commander-in-Chief and Minister for Defence. The Senate consisted of a number of southern Unionists as well as prominent Nationalists such as W. B. Yeats and Oliver St. John Gogarty, proving that Nationalists and Unionists could work together for the good of the country.

The first business at hand was to pass the new constitution, and that was followed on September 27th by a Public Safety Bill which set up military courts that could impose the death penalty on anyone found carrying arms or ammunition, or on anyone who committed an act of war. Prisoners would no longer be treated as political prisoners. The executions which resulted from convictions by these courts, 77 by wars end, provoked further reprisals from the anti-Treaty side. An offer of amnesty by the government to anyone who wished to surrender received a weak response. At the time Cosgrave made the following statement‘’What do we want? We simply want order restored to this country. We want all arms under control of the people who elected us. We want that the people of this country only shall have a right to say who are to be armed and who are not’’.

The very first executions under the Bill were carried out November 16th 1922, after four young men in Dublin were found guilty of carrying unauthorised weapons. They were shot by firing squad. Erskine Childers, who was a former member of the government prior to the Treaty split, was on the run and ended up being arrested at his cousin’s house in county Wicklow, where he was found in possession of a gun which he attempted to use when confronted. His execution took place on the 24th of November. Shortly afterwards Liam Lynch agreed to the formation of a Republican government, and appointed Eamon de Valera as President.

In response to the first executions Lynch announced that fourteen categories of people were directed to be ‘’shot at sight’’, including all members of the Provisional Dail who had voted in favour of the Bill. Republicans were also ordered to kill members of the Senate, High Court judges, journalists and proprietors of hostile newspapers, and even ‘’aggressive Free State supporters’’. The homes and offices of all these people were to be destroyed. (300 of the so-called ‘’big houses’’ were burned down during the civil war.) On December 6th the new Constitution was enacted by the Dail and the Free State formally came into being. On the very next day two Dail deputies were gunned down in Dublin city centre. Sean Hales was killed, while Padraic O Maille was badly wounded.

A cabinet meeting was called and Richard Mulcahy proposed the execution of four senior IRA leaders imprisoned inside Mountjoy jail in retaliation, Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Richard Barrett and Joe McKelvey. All four were executed by firing-squad the following day. None of them had been tried in a court of law, but their illegal deaths had the desired effect in that no other TD was targeted. However, some weeks later Kevin O’Higgins’ father was shot dead, as also was an uncle of W. T. Cosgrave. One civil-war historian John Regan makes the point that only by pursuing an utterly ruthless campaign of assassination could the anti-Treatyites have stood any chance of winning the war.

By this time all members of the Provisional Government were been forced to live in government buildings on Upper Merrion Street behind barbed-wire and sandbags, together with their families, because of the obvious danger. On December 19th seven IRA prisoners from Kildare were executed at the Curragh Camp, while in January a further six prisoners from the Leixlip flying column were executed at Portobello Barracks in Dublin, five of whom had been former members of the National Army, shot for desertion or ‘’treachery’’. On into 1923 and the government continued its executions policy in order to deal with Republican outrages, even bringing in a refinement which brought much success, where an arrested man was sentenced to death after trial but his sentence would be suspended if there were no further outrages committed inside his area of operation.

Even the houses of friends of pro-Treatyites were targeted, and between December 10th 1922 and April 30th of the following year, in Dublin alone twenty-eight civilian homes were deliberately destroyed by burnings or explosions, along with six income-tax offices and a number of hotels. There were also attempts to destroy several cinemas and theatres, which meant that no one was entirely safe. De Valera did his best to have Lynch call off the campaign but the Chief-of-Staff wrote back ‘’The Free State is on the verge of collapse, and the burnings are an important part’’. Outside of the capital city over 200 of the ‘’big houses’’ were gutted, as well as hundreds of ordinary houses owned by Free State supporters.

Another tactic of the anti-Treaty side was a programme of destruction aimed at the railway network, with many isolated rural areas finding themselves cut off entirely from towns and villages, badly affecting trade and agriculture. After some time a Maintenance Corps was formed which managed to keep the majority of lines open. In the meantime, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had succeeded in ‘’turning’’ a number of anti-Treaty members, although the exact figures were never revealed. ‘’Some agents gained the confidence of the Irregulars, with results that were highly satisfactory’’. But overall it was not yet a decisive victory, and the war raged on.

When five members of the National Army, including two Dublin Guard officers, were killed by a booby-trap bomb at Knocknagoshel village in county Kerry on March 6th, Paddy O’Daly General Officer Commanding in Kerry sought immediate revenge, and fifteen prisoners were killed over the next ten days. Eight in Ballyseedy, blown up by a land mine, with four more near Killarney, and a further five in Cahirsiveen. March also saw Liam Lynch issuing his infamous ‘’Amusements Order’’, which insisted that a day of national mourning be proclaimed following the execution of any IRA prisoner, and that ‘’all sport and amusements be suspended, all picture houses and theatres and other places of public amusement be closed, especially horse riding, hunting, coursing, dancing and outdoor sports. Anyone refusing this order will be treated as an enemy of the Republic’’. The order was also approved by de Valera, who wrote ‘’I admit that they (the public) do not deserve much consideration, for they seem indifferent to the judicial murders going on’’.

A bizarre scene unfolded at Portmarnock golf club, where a number of intended golfers were surrounded by armed men who ordered them all to go home! But the ‘’Amusements Order’’ became a lot more serious than that as the antitreatyites attempted to show that although facing military defeat they could still terrorise the public. Cinemas and theatres in Dublin began receiving threatening notices to close their premises, or else! Some places did close down, which prompted the government to place soldiers and members of the CID outside their establishments, and also threaten the owners with hefty fines.

It was more than a surprise, because of the times that were in it, that on March 17th a major boxing match was fixed for Dublin, a world heavyweight title fight between an Irish fighter Mike McTigue and the Frenchman Louis Mbarick Fall, at La Scala Theatre close to the GPO. The IRA Dublin Brigade, under orders to bomb the theatre, attempted to do just that, but finding that ‘’it had a strong guard on it’’ settled for detonating a mine in nearby Henry Street which injured two bystanders. All 2,000 spectators were searched as they entered the theatre that night. There was a sharp rebuke for the Dublin Brigade because the fight had been allowed to go ahead, and on the urgings of GHQ there were further attacks on public entertainments over the following days.

A mine was laid at the Fountain Cinema which failed to go off, but one did explode at the Grand Central Cinema on O’Connell Street, causing extensive damage and wounding two bystanders. While the threat to civilians was real, because of good security and some ineptitude by the bombers themselves, there were no deaths, apart from one would-be bomber who was shot dead by National Army troops as he attempted to lay a bomb at the Carlton Cinema on O’Connell Street.

By now the civil war had mainly degenerated into a contest of vindictive reprisals, and a number of pro-Treaty soldiers were shot individually, around the country and in Dublin city. As for the other side, during the previous year retaliation had been an almost random lashing out at any anti-Treaty fighter, mainly in Kerry, but by now those killed were important IRA figures, almost all of them located in Dublin. Thomas O’Leary’s bullet riddled body was discovered in Upper Rathmines on March 23rd, while a few days later Bobby Bonfield’s dead body was found in Clondalkin. At the end of the month two more bodies were located in Cabra, on the north side of the city. All four victims had been murdered by National Army members or by members of the CID.

In April there was yet another ‘’unofficial execution’’ when the body of Martin Hogan was found in Drumcondra. He was from Nenagh in county Tipperary, and had been involved in the gruesome gang rape of a Protestant woman there in June of the previous year, for which his four accomplices were later arrested. But he was not killed because of that, but for having committing ‘’several murders’’ of pro-Treaty forces in Dublin city. It was suspected that he had been taken away by ‘’CID men’’. Arrests of many anti-Treatyites continued apace, while some arms dumps were also seized. By now it had become clear to everyone except Liam Lynch that the war was lost.

Lynch was killed in April 1923 as he scrambled his way across a mountainside in county Tipperary, shot by an army sniper. His successor Frank Aiken ordered the anti-Treatyites to ‘’dump arms’’. So one of the most un-necessary wars that had ever been enacted ground to an ignominious halt, although not all killings ended with the ceasefire. Noel Lemass was rumoured to have taken part in the murder of TD Sean Hales and had gone to live in England soon afterwards, but following the ceasefire he returned to his former job with Dublin Corporation. In July he was arrested by a man in plain-clothes armed with a ‘’heavy black revolver’’, while his shot and badly decomposed body was found in a remote spot in the Dublin Mountains a few months later. His suspected killer was James Murray, a captain in the CID, who was later convicted for a different killing and died in prison a few years into his sentence.

Rapes, the robbing of post-office’s, and numerous murders were carried out by both sides during the civil war, although listening to members of the two civil war parties that emerged shortly after the conflict ended you would never suspect it. The pro-Treaty side was attempting to bring life into the newly born Free State, while the other side, with no backing whatsoever from the Dail or the people, complained that there was no Republic, and were also unhappy with the imposition of the oath, attempted to blast the fledgling new state into oblivion.

The cry of ‘’77’’ is still occasionally hurled at the Fine Gael party, the number of legal executions carried out during the eleven-month war. The Public Safety Bill that had been passed clearly stated that anyone involved in an act of war, or anyone found in possession of a weapon, would be tried and if found guilty would forfeit his life. That could not have been made any clearer. It was certainly true that the executions of the four prisoners carried out on November 16th was an illegal act, and should never have happened. It ensured that O’Higgins’ name would be besmirched for perpetuity, while Liam Lynch’s will be honoured on his annual Commemoration Day. The very same man who ordered his troops to kill TD’s, senators, judges, etc., and to carry out other atrocities, followed by his ‘’Amusements Order’’, which, no thanks to himself, did not cause the deaths of any civilians.

But the war had caused many deaths and many difficulties and problems for numerous people, while placing the new state in a serious financial position at a time when it should have been allowed to emerge innocently into a brave new world, instead of almost into a dead-at-birth situation. The total number of civil war deaths amounted to almost 2,000, with civilian deaths somewhere around 350. In 2022 on the 100th anniversary of the war the current prime-minister and Fianna Fail leader Michael Martin spoke of Michael Collins at the place of his death, only the second party member ever to have done so. He praised his fellow country man, although he was in a difficult position, the most prominent individual on the pro-Treaty side being praised by the leader of the party founded by Eamon de Valera. But he managed to pull it off successfully.

However, in a long rambling piece written that same year by Martin, and relating to the civil war, he manages to say almost nothing of any significance. He does manage to mention the atrocity at Ballyseedy where eight anti-Treaty forces were murdered, without any reference whatsoever to the atrocity at Knocknagoshel, where five National Army troopers had been killed on the previous day. With that type of one-sided overview will there ever come a time when we can expect a true account of the civil war to be taught in our schools and colleges? Every country attempts to hide its history of crimes, some manage to do so successfully, and Ireland is no exception. But Ireland also loves to preach of other countries crimes, or perceived crimes. Sheer hypocrisy, but standard stuff nowadays.

In November of 1924 the Free State government introduced a general amnesty for killings committed during the civil war. There were many members on both sides of the divide who could have been retrospectively charged with murder, but the government ensured that that was not going to happen, not wishing to reopen old wounds. Amnesty was chosen over accountability. Following the war the government faced the cold reality of attempting to build a state from the shattered dreams encountered by most at the time of the Treaty-signing, now ruined by fratricide and destruction. The damage had been immense, as was the cost in finiancial terms, which ran into many millions.

In May of 1926 de Valera left Sinn Fein to establish his own party, Fianna Fail, and in the following years general election won 44 seats although still committed to an abstentionist policy. And in July of that same year Kevin O’Higgins was murdered by three anti-Treaty IRA members, and in retaliation for the four illegal executions back in November 1922. In the wake of the killing the government introduced the Electoral Amendment Bill, forcing elected representatives either to take the oath, or forfeit their seats. After due consideration de Valera decided that he would take the oath, and enter parliament.

He called the oath an ‘’empty formula’’, but would later claim that he had never really taken it, having played sleight-of-hand with the Bible provided, a story that continues to be told and retold by the Fianna Fail faithful up to today. However, once he signed on the dotted line below the written oath, like everyone else, he had signed the oath. (He had come across the word ‘’formula’’ in talks with the British prime minister soon after the truce was called, when Lloyd George in order to overcome de Valera’s adhorrence for the oath stated that it was simply a formula.)

At the Imperial Conference of 1930 Britain granted its six dominions full legal autonomy, effectively giving the Free State internationally recognised independence. They were sovereign nations in their own right, proving that Michael Collins had been correct from the start. In the February 1932 election Fianna Fail was voted into government, the baton had been passed, and in 1933 prime minister de Valera abolished the oath to the King and the Governor General.

Ireland voted on and accepted a new constitution in 1937 that had been written by de Valera, which was overwhelmingly socialist and Catholic and was actually sent to the Vatican for approval prior to the referendum. The country would be referred to as ‘’Eire’’ in the Irish language, and as ‘’Ireland’’ in the English language, while the British government objected to Ireland’s claim on Northern Ireland. The ‘’Republic of Ireland’’ was declared by a Fine Gael-led government in 1949.

During 1948 de Valera gave an extended interview to a male student from an American University during which he answered numerous questions. The final question asked was ‘’Do you have any regrets?’’, to which he replied ‘’I should have accepted the Treaty, and worked it’’. That statement is not to be found anywhere in the Authorised Fianna Fail Version of Events.

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On Sunday January 19th 2025 a ceasefire was declared in the Gaza Strip. President Joe Biden claims that he was the architect, although that does not appear to be true, even though he had attempted to arrange a ceasefire from May onwards during the previous year. So what changed? Undoubtedly President-elect Donald Trump was the main catalyst, as the public warning which he had made two weeks previously, that if the Israeli hostages were not released soon ‘’all hell will break out in the Middle East’’, appeared to have done the trick. It had put the frighteners on Iran, who immediately advised its Hamas surrogate that the time for play-acting was over.

At the same time Trump’s choice of special envoy to the region Steve Witkoff had also put pressure on Binyamin Netanyahy to reign in on his attempt to eliminate Hamas completely. For the Israeli prime minister there was some quid pro quo in the works, despite the fact that a number of his cabinet allies on the hard right were openly unhappy with the three-phase deal, particularly the release of some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for the remaining 105 hostages, of whom a number were already dead. That deal brought to mind painful memories of a similar arrangement enacted in 2011, in exchange for a single IDF soldier. One of those released at the time had been Yahya Sinwar, the future Hamas leader who masterminded the October 7th atrocity, killed by Israeli troops in Rafah last October.

The actual figure for Hamas fighters killed is estimated to be somewhere around 15,000, a significant figure, destroyed as a fighting force, and with almost all of its military infrastructure in Gaza eradicated. Israel had also decimated Hezbollah, dismantling its command and control system and destroying 80% of its missiles. It has also destroyed most of Iran’s strategic air and missile defences, and 90% of its ballistic missile-producing capability. Syria has been freed, which means that Iran no longer has a land corridor across its territory to resupply and rebuild Hezbollah. And if Iran cannot be talked out of creating a nuclear weapon, Israel will make certain that it will never leave the ground if they manage to do so. The balance of power in the region has altered. Good for Israel, and good for peace in the region.

Israel is a country founded on the idea of ‘’never again’’, sworn to protect Jewish life, and if it continues to be a target for Muslims who have only one outcome in mind, there will need to be a satisfactory solution arrived regarding security. United Nations peace-keeping forces from many nations have been deployed in numerous parts of the world for a very long time, including the Israeli-Lebanon border. But they have often been seen as simply observers more than peace-keepers. Using the NATO army might be a real solution, being free to react if and when peace breaks down, and being provided with strong back-up.

War is an instrument, not an end in itself. Only in circumstances in which one is fighting a war of survival can military means be said to overshadow political considerations. But war has gone on for far too long in Palestine. Israel is an entity. It would be great if everyone excepted that and decided to get on with life.

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Ron Walsh. Copyright 2025