A Political Punch & Judy show with Irish-Arab Bias

Islington Punch and Judy by Jonathan Lucas (creative commons)

Have Irish government attitudes towards the Middle East been unduly influenced by its huge export trade to Arab Islamic states? In the light of many / most Irish politicians’ ambivalence towards Israel, it’s a question worth asking.

In the first nine months of 2022 – The Irish Arab Chamber of Commerce (established 1987) – declared that Ireland exported over € 2.2 billion in goods to the Arab states. (1)

Arab royalty stud farms have huge earnings and are large employers in Ireland. They are key contributors to the thirty thousand jobs, and € 2.46 billion in direct and stimulated expenditure in the Irish bloodstock industry. (2)

Then there is the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs who facilitate business opportunities in Middle Eastern countries – which is a priority market under the Government’s Trade and Investment Strategy 2022-2026. (3)

Those three significant elements must play somewhat into the policies of how Ireland views the Middle East. Some sand is surely thrown into the cogs of good governance, due to the Irish government’s pro-Arab / anti-Israel policies going back many decades.

“Ireland’s stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict earned it a reputation in the 1980s as a leading member of the ‘pro-Arab bloc’ within the European Community. And though the Irish position was not motivated solely by economic considerations, there was a conspicuous link between Ireland’s developing trade ties in the region and its policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict….” (4)

All these factors stack the odds against Israel and create significant antipathy towards Israel. Israel rightly sees itself as a lone island of liberal democracy in a stormy sea of Islamic theocratic dictatorships.

Much Irish foreign policy tends to emphasize a holier-than-thou, high ‘moral ground’ against Israel, this smallest of nations constantly fighting for their very existence. Political prejudice gets a front row seat in the pro-Palestinian / anti-Israel ‘Punch & Judy’ show.

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After successfully defeating opponents Punch proclaims: “That’s the way to do it!”

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We presciently know who the Irish politicians and public side with: Punch, the Palestinian. His high-pitched, whiney voice gets echoed and amplified by many masked ‘Joey Clowns’ on Irish city streets.

Judy (Jewdy?) – rightfully counter-scolds Punch’s pugnacious agitprop theatrics. She is the target for Punch’s truncheon-torrent of antisemitic abuse, and much more… Comparative political justice doesn’t get an equitable look in. Israel is in a non-stop existential fight for hearts, souls and minds.

No shouty socialist dares call out the Islamic states on apartheid and injustice towards minorities. Their dismal, historically bad record of human rights surely makes them ripe for divestment and sanctions. Let’s analyze the Saudi record, as detailed by Amnesty International.

Firstly, there are the public lashings; secondly, the arbitrary hangings of men, women and teens. Then thirdly, the lack of rights’ and forced conversion therapy for LGBTQI+ people; fourthly, the illegality to practice any religion other than Islam in public.(5)

The lack of basic political, human and religious rights are an egregious indictment throughout the Arab world. Yet Irish NGOs expect and demand that Israel alone should abide by chiding UN mandates. Why do they just pick on Israel as being a supposed ‘pariah’ state? Why not hold erring Muslim majority country members to account, also?

The people of Israel have had three millennia of periodic persecution, forced slavery from Pharaoh onwards, to say nothing of Russian pogroms, Nazi genocides and coerced exile from most Arab countries.

This Torah-storied nation is unique, enduring and perhaps even… enviable. It’s demographics are made up of right-wing, left-wing, Orthodox, liberal, LGBTQ, straight, rich and poor. The Irish virtuous vocalists who ‘stand’ with antisemitism need to recalibrate their understanding of comparative political theory.

Palestine has been prime time for long enough on our city streets and computer screens. Israel is now in need of equal access and open minded, unprejudiced political debate in these clam-shut-closed domains.

It’s time for Punch to put his bludgeoning bloody baton down! Judy needs a bit of metaphorical bandaging and more generous breathing space on the cramped booth stage…

‘God, Redeemer of Israel, The Holy of Israel,

    says to the despised one, kicked around by the nations,

    slave labor to the ruling class:

“Kings will see, get to their feet—the princes, too—

    and then fall on their faces in homage

Because of God, who has faithfully kept his word,

    The Holy of Israel, who has chosen you.” – Isaiah 49:7

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Sources:

1) Irish exports to Arab States reach all time high, increasing by 23% for 2022

https://aicc.ie/2023/01/17/irish-exports-to-arab-states-reach-all-time-high-increasing-by-23-for-2022/

2) Godolphin stud operation (2022)

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2023/1109/1415681-losses-at-godolphin-stud-operation-doubled-last-year/

3) The Middle East is a priority market under the Government’s Trade and Investment Strategy 2022-2026.

https://www.ireland.ie/en/dfa/role-policies/international-priorities/middle-east-and-north-africa/

4) The Politics of Trade and Diplomacy: Ireland’s Evolving Relationship with the Muslim Middle East by Rory Miller. Irish Studies in International Affairs

Vol. 15 (2004), pp. 123-145 https://www.jstor.org/stable/30002083

5) Ten ways that Saudi Arabia violates human rights

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/saudi-arabia-human-rights-raif-badawi-king-salman

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Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Mr. Punch and one other character who usually falls victim to the intentional violence of Punch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_and_Judy