Why Israel should be worried about Northern Ireland’s new first minister
When someone makes the statement: “Hamas will eventually be regarded as a future partner for peace,” Israel should be greatly concerned. In this case, it was Michelle O’Neill, the newly elected First Minister of Northern Ireland. In her new capacity, O’Neill will serve as the joint head of Northern Ireland’s government, together with the deputy First Minister, taking on the overall responsibility for running the Executive office.
O’Neill ran as a Sinn Fein candidate, now the largest political party in Northern Ireland and a collaborator with the IRA. If the names IRA and Sinn Fein sound a bit familiar, it’s because, back in the 70s, the IRA gained notoriety as a violent militant nationalist organization that sought to overthrow British rule and establish an independent republic. They worked together with Sinn Fein, their political arm.
For those of us old enough to remember, it was during that time that we witnessed a rash of bombings, assassinations and other violence, in a coordinated terror campaign that was responsible for the death of about 1800 people, including around 600 civilians. With the use of extortion and racketeering, the IRA was able to raise money for many illegal activities. Eventually, it realized that its aspirations could best be served through the medium of politics, and that resulted in Sinn Fein taking the reins.
But what many may not realize is that this Irish political group has also been very supportive of the terrorist group Hamas, “seeing themselves as kindred spirits in the global battle against the forces of ‘imperialism.’” In fact, a Palestinian flag was recently draped on Black Mountain, a site in West Belfast, which acts as a political billboard. Former Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, also displayed a flag on X, writing “The Mountain Speaks! Free Palestine.”
So given this backdrop, it’s not hard to understand O’Neill’s recent interview with British journalist, Andrew Marr, who said, “A long time ago, the IRA was seen as a terrorist organization that the British government and everybody else could not ever talk to, and yet we know what followed from that. Do you think that Hamas, although regarded as a terrorist organization by many people around the world, are going to be eventually a partner for peace?” To which O’Neill responded, “Yes, I think you only have to look to our own example to know how important dialogue is, and it is the only way you’re going to ever bring an end to conflict…In Ireland, we would not be in the scenario that we are in today, enjoying a peaceful and far more equal society.”
This is the part which is particularly worrying because the above dialogue reflects a complete misunderstanding of the vast differences between the IRA, which hoped to achieve independence for Ireland, but whose aim was not to wipe out all Brits versus a terrorist group whose aim is not only to take the whole territory of Israel as their land, but to also wipe out the Jewish people globally. In fact, it’s likely that the latter goal would be more emphasized than taking the land from Israel.
It is this kind of deceptive and totally false parallel that is being used as the reasoning behind O’Neill’s extremely naïve belief that today’s Hamas terrorists can become tomorrow’s peaceful neighbors. But when deception is the basis of trying to convince others that the impossible can be achieved, there will always be those who are willing to jump on board the “Give Peace a Chance,” bandwagon - gullible enough to think that a leopard can change its spots.
The problem is that most of the individuals, if not all, who are open to such possibilities, come from the West and are totally unfamiliar with the mentality and inculcated behaviors of Middle-Eastern, tribal ideology which is seeped in barbaric cruelty and only knows terrorism and force as a means to an end. For them, there is no conference table where parties sit together and negotiate peace plans with the expressed result of two factions living peaceably side by side. Savage murder is their tool in gaining what they want, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
O’Neill believes that an immediate ceasefire will pave the way for a new reality, but based on what? To that end, she is doing her best to recruit the international community to demand that the fighting end, while also utilizing the court of international law as a strong-arm tactic to keep Israel in check.
It is O’Neill’s insistence on these points that should greatly worry Israel because she clearly doesn’t have our best interests at heart. We know only too well what will happen if we leave Gaza and abandon a war that began as a brutal massacre that killed 1200 innocents. From O’Neill’s point of view, her sympathies are only extended one way as she laments “the slaughter of innocent Palestinian people, the graveyard for children.”
But the woman who became involved in politics in her teens, after giving birth to a daughter at age 16, and then joining Sinn Fein at the age of 21, clearly has a specific agenda. Some believe that her ultimate goal is to unite the north and the south under one banner of a Sinn Fein government. While pledging to represent all, in her role as First Minister, one can’t help but wonder if she’d resort to violence, which she believes to be a legitimate form of resistance, to any who would oppose her. The Daily Mail, back in 2017, described her as “The beauty from a family drenched in blood,” since she was born into an IRA family with her father and uncle both being IRA prisoners and having other family members who were shot.
Making the mistake, in the past, of expressing empathy for four IRA men, using an endearing term when referring to them, her opponents have responded by saying, “It was proof of where her true loyalties lay.” O’Neill attributes her father, a Sinn Fein councillor as having shaped the woman she is today. His association with a notorious unit of the IRA, which killed dozens of British soldiers, as well as other officers in a bombing campaign on Army bases and police stations, does not lend hope as one imagines how his influence might possibly impact her governance.
Northern Ireland residents may end up discovering that their faith in a woman, who is unable to distinguish the virtue of peace through understanding and tolerance, rather than a forced, coercion, through violent means, was, sadly, misplaced. But in the meantime, Israel will do what it has to do in order to rid the Hamas violence which continues to threaten our very existence. Because that is the only way that a lasting peace can truly be achieved!
The best advice that can be given to Michelle O’Neill is to concentrate on her lane of Northern Ireland and get out of ours where she doesn’t belong!
A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal who made Aliyah in 1993 and became a member of Kibbutz Reim but now lives in the center of the country with her husband. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, based on the principles from the book of Proverbs - available on Amazon.
