As the Irish leader visits the US, Shamrock Camaraderie is under pressure from the Gaza war

The Irish Prime Minister’s annual St. Patrick’s Day visit to the White House is typically a cheerful break in the schedule of stressful meetings and outings of any US president, especially for President Biden, who never misses a chance to celebrate his Irish heritage .

But the traditional clover-like camaraderie of this year’s gathering will be tempered by an undercurrent of tension arising from the war in the Middle East. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar of Ireland has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s military assault on Hamas in response to the October 7 terrorist attack and has pledged to raise the issue with Mr Biden.

‘I will ask America to re-engage in the pursuit of peace’ Mr Varadkar told reporters in Boston earlier this week. Thursday in Washington he said he expected that there would be a disagreement about the war when he reaches the Oval Office on Friday. “There is very strong historical support for Israel in the US, for many different reasons, but that won’t stop me from saying what I think needs to be said.”

However, he didn’t sound particularly confrontational. “I have to say I believe President Biden’s heart is in the right place there.” he said. “I know he is working with Egypt, with Qatar, with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region, the Jordanians, to try to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire.”

The issue has particular resonance for many in Ireland, given its history of resistance to British rule, making the country one of the most supportive of the Palestinian cause in Europe. Ireland was the first European Union country to call for a Palestinian state and the last country to allow the opening of a residential Israeli embassy.

“There may be a tendency – and we see this, for example, in the street murals in Belfast – to see the conflict through the prism of Northern Ireland, where republican nationalists sympathize with Palestine and loyalists, unionists with Israel,” said Jane Ohlmeyer. , a history professor at Trinity College Dublin.

She warned that “this does not mean that Catholics are anti-Zionists and Protestants are anti-Palestinians.” But she said she wondered whether the Good Friday Agreement, the US-aided 1998 agreement that ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, “could be a ray of hope at an incredibly dark moment and could eventually provide a template for securing peace in the Middle East.”

Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, said the decline in violence in Northern Ireland had allowed the Irish to focus on other conflicts and sympathize with those involved, including the Palestinians in Gaza.

“The Middle East is a subject that appeals to many of them. There is a long history of sympathy,” Mr Haass said. “But it’s also ironic because I suspect that Joe Biden probably shares many of their concerns, and what he’s trying to do is thread a thread between support for Israel’s right to respond and criticism of the way it has done so, interlock. And unlike Ireland, he has to maintain a relationship with Bibi Netanyahu of Israel.”

Mr Varadkar, the Prime Minister, or Taoiseach, was among those in Dublin who led a chorus of criticism of Israel for the way it has waged its war against Hamas, which has led to the deaths of more than 30,000 people in Gaza, including citizens. and fighters. He told Parliament this last month that Israel had been “blinded by anger” since Hamas killed 1,200 people and captured more than 200 on October 7. He said an attack on the southern city of Rafah, where most of Gaza’s population has fled, would be a “coarse attack.” violation of international law, in addition to all other violations of international law for which Israel is responsible.”

Mr. Biden has strongly supported Israel’s right to defend itself and respond to the deadly terrorist attack. But he has called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Rafah without a credible plan to protect civilians, and to do more to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which the United Nations says is at “imminent” risk of famine.

U.S. officials, working with counterparts in Qatar and Egypt, have been trying to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would halt fighting for at least six weeks in exchange for the release of some of the more than 100 remaining hostages and some theirs. Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

But Hamas has backed away from the proposed deal and made demands that Israel refuses to meet, pushing for a permanent end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, rather than just a pause in military operations.

“We are still focused, laser focused, on trying to broker a temporary ceasefire so that we can get the hostages out and get more help,” said John F. Kirby, a White House spokesman , Thursday. “That’s where our heads are at right now.”