Irish Examiner view: Progress towards peace in Gaza requires listening to all sides

Diplomacy requires recognition of the philosophy stated by JFK 60 years ago: 'We must deal with the world as it is, not as we would wish it to be'
Irish Examiner view: Progress towards peace in Gaza requires listening to all sides

Israel, Picture: Visit To His Egypt And Palestine, At During The Martin Be'eri Shimonovich/dfa Miri Kibbutz Micheál

A picture, so the old cliché goes, is worth 1,000 words. But in this world of insta-opinion generated thousands of miles away from the scene of action, with little knowledge, or respect, for context, it depends on who the wordsmith is, and the meanings and inferences they want to draw from the “evidence” before them.

Thus it is that Tánaiste Micheál Martin has earned the ire of pro-Palestinian commentators for being thought to have posed for a photo opportunity in aid of Israel when he visited the home of Haim Peretz in the town of Sderot, which is about a mile from Gaza and which was in the front line of the hostilities which erupted on October 7.

At the centre of the rancour is the idea that Mr Martin has served as what Lenin would have described as a “useful idiot” for the Israelis. But the reality is that the picture, which appeared on an Irish Examiner social media feed, was not only not posed, but Mr Martin was not even aware that our journalist was taking the shot on a camera phone.

Undertaking diplomatic work does not imply approbation or support for the actions of the regimes whose representatives sit across the table, but it does necessitate a recognition of the philosophy explicitly stated by US president John Kennedy in Washington 60 years ago: “We must deal with the world as it is, not as we would wish it to be.”

Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin speaking with Major Libby Weiss of the Israel Defense Forces during his visit to the Be’eri Kibbutz where Irish girl Emily Hand was last seen. Picture: Elaine Loughlin
Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin speaking with Major Libby Weiss of the Israel Defense Forces during his visit to the Be’eri Kibbutz where Irish girl Emily Hand was last seen. Picture: Elaine Loughlin

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB

Mr Martin’s mission, with the objective of obtaining the release of trapped Irish citizens, was not a comfortable experience and there were difficult and painful moments during his meeting with the Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen, Israeli ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich and the mayor of Sderot, Alon Davidi.

Whatever we may feel about our nation, Ireland is not perceived as a particularly strong supporter of Israel within that state. While we may take pride in flourishing our neutrality, we should not be surprised in a febrile and dangerous world if others have a less-accommodating view of us.

Mr Martin said he was shocked by some of the “simplistic vitriol” that his visit generated back home, but he surely cannot have been surprised by it, and may view it as a price which must be paid for contributing to the release of the first couple of dozen Irish citizens trapped in Gaza.

It was another US president, Theodore Roosevelt, who said that diplomacy consisted of “speaking softly and carrying a big stick”.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin visiting Haim Peretz's home in the town of Sderot, Israel, where he examined the damage done by a Hamas rocket attack. Picture: Elaine Loughlin
Tánaiste Micheál Martin visiting Haim Peretz's home in the town of Sderot, Israel, where he examined the damage done by a Hamas rocket attack. Picture: Elaine Loughlin

We may only have a small twig, and we have to rely on our persuasive abilities to appeal to both sides of a dispute. Grand gestures to the gallery will not be constructive. And neither will vacuous barracking from armchair experts back home.

One of Ireland's great cultural events 

Disappointed with the final series of The Crown utilising a plot device that originated in Greek tragedy, was burnished to perfection in Shakespeare and Dickens but was positively creaking by the time it was rolled out in Dallas in the mid-1980s?

Tired of getting what noted director Ridley Scott described as “bum ache” over big movies with protracted running times (we’re looking at you Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan) and yearning for something around the 100-minute mark?

Happily, there is a world of alternative viewing and the chance to participate in one of Ireland’s great cultural events as the Cork International Film Festival enters its second week, in its 68th year since Des Breen from Waterford founded the event during his tenure as manager of Cork’s Palace Theatre in 1956.

That inaugural festival opened with a controversial choice by showing the drama A Town Like Alice, which had been withdrawn from Cannes because of fears that its Second World War storyline of a romance between captured office worker Jean Paget and the gruff Australian soldier Joe Harman might have offended Japanese sensibilities.

The film festival continues to showcase challenging and unconventional themes and has established itself as an important platform for Irish creativity with a diverse offer of big budget movies, short films and documentaries, world and indie cinema. It’s a credit to the country and the city and deserves the support of every movie fan in Ireland.

Into the woods with Cork's robotrees 

There’s just a soupcon of classic French farce in the debate in Cork about the effectiveness of the “robotrees” which were installed on the Grand Parade and St Patrick’s Street with the
beguiling promise that they would improve air quality. This is an ambition which has yet to bear any fruit.

The schism between the conflicting views of councillors who have studied the results, has yet to match the legendary status of Clochemerle, the fictional village in the Beaujolais region where local government was brought to its knees by a proposal to install a vespasienne, or pissoir, in the town square, right next to the church. But it is having its moments.

The “trees” — regenerative bio-air filters made from sustainable moss — were installed on Cork-sur-Lee as part of a €55m National Transport Authority stimulus package in response to the pandemic. They cost €18,000 a year to maintain, a sum described as a “drop in the ocean” by one Fine Gael councillor, despite no tangible evidence that they produce any benefit.

Other councillors are less sanguine about the expenditure. One said the city had been “sold a pup” and criticised the State for handing out money “willy nilly” and telling local authorities to spend it on “some cookie new tech.” Another described the machines as a “massive white elephant”. Don’t stop believing seems to be the theme song of the tree supporters who voted to spare the axe for another six months to give the project the chance to germinate. Some of them bridled at being criticised for innovation, presumably on the Beckettian principle of “Try again. Fail Again. Fail Better.”

Fianna Fáil councillor Fergal Dennehy will find many who echo his views.

“Let’s get off the social media bandwagon,” he said. “Let’s give the director space and time to see if we can work with universities, or other groups, and stop running our meetings from social media.”

Amen to that. Perhaps a good way to mark Black Friday and Cyber Monday would be to stay off the socials.

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