Western Backlash to Ireland’s New President Over Israel

 

Western Backlash to Ireland’s
New President Over Israel

The outspoken new Irish president on Israel and NATO was inaugurated today and already the knives are out for her, writes Mick Hall. Read here...

excerpt: 

As Catherine Connolly was inaugurated as Ireland’s 10th president in Dublin Castle today, efforts intensified to undermine the country’s neutrality as it weighs moves to punish Israel for genocide. 

Connolly, 68, was elected after winning over 63 percent of the vote in a landslide victory last month, her robust defence of anti-war and anti-genocide positions resonating with the Irish electorate, while causing alarm in Western corridors of power.

These are signs that the victory of the anti-imperialist left has served to galvanise establishment forces, both at home and abroad.

A former White House national security advisor, Robert C. O’Brien, writing in The Wall Street Journal last week, warned the Trump administration would “no longer tolerate countries that reap the benefits of America’s economic strength and military power, while pursuing policies that undermine American interests.”

“Ireland’s President-elect embodies the antagonism towards American interests,” he wrote, adding:

“Ireland is finding its voice in international affairs, but it’s one that seems increasingly hostile to US interests. Ireland is the most antagonistic country to Israel in the Western world … Ireland was one of the first Western democracies to recognise a Palestinian state unilaterally, and it is at the forefront of allegations of ‘genocide’ against Israel. Meanwhile Dublin courts Chinese investment with no mention of Beijing’s human rights record, economic coercion or regional aggression.”

In January, Ireland formally intervened in South Africa’s case brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which alleges a breach of the Genocide Convention. Ireland has also remained out of NATO, refusing to militarise with most of the rest of Europe.

Ireland is indeed facing growing pressure over its refusal to align with the imperial West. Even its civil society bodies are coming under scrutiny from U.S. neo-conservatives.

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WATCH: The Media’s
Responsibility in Genocide

Mainstream media cannot escape its guilt in helping to facilitate the genocide in Gaza, says journalist Mary Kostakidis. Read here...

EXCERPT: 

Journalist Mary Kostakidis explores the role the mainstream media has played in defending Israel’s genocide in Gaza. She spoke during the Future of Palestine conference on Oct. 31. The conference was sponsored by Australians for Humanity, and the publication, Pearls and Irritations.

Kostakidis was the anchor of the SBS nightly newscast in Australia for nearly 20 years. She has been dragged into court by the Zionist Federation of Australia, accused of violating the country’s Racial Discrimination Act for a series of her tweets critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.  

Nov 9, 2025

Former mainstream media veteran Mary Kostakidis, on the holy grail of journalism: impartiality, objectivity, neutrality and balance, when it comes to Middle East reporting.

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WATCH: The History
Mamdani Must Undo

New New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is faced with reversing a half century of city policies stemming from the beginning of the neoliberal era of the mid-1970s, says Judith Jorrisch. Read here...

Nov 11, 2025

New New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is faced with reversing a half century of city policies stemming from the beginning of the neoliberal era of the mid-1970s, says Judith Jorrisch. Jorrisch is an organizer and activist who has been deeply involved in New York City politics for decades. She traces the city's crisis of inequality to the earliest neo-liberal policies of austerity stemming from New York's financial crisis of the mid-1970s, which nearly led to the city's bankruptcy. Mayor-Elect Mamdani won last week's election to alleviate that crisis. President Gerald Ford's refusal to bail the city out led to the infamous New York Daily News headline: "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD." The result was to give inordinate power to private finance and property developers, who still wield that influence. It is this entrenched power that Mamdani must address if he hopes to fulfill his campaign promises, says Jorrisch.

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