U.S. conservative talisman Pat Buchannan made an unusual appearance in the Journal last week, as arguably the American Democrats’ top representative to Ireland Larry Donnelly outlined the risk of a Zionist backlash to the Oireachtas passing the Occupied Territories Bill (OTB).
Sardonically referring to the halls of American power being ‘Israeli-occupied,” Donnelly used the Buchannan quip to map out the hold of Zionist lobbying power and the potential for it to be directed at Ireland over the OTB.
Partially watered-down from an original 2018 text, the Bill aims to prohibit trade with illegal settlements in Palestinian occupied territories, with a particular focus on the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The OTB was approved by cabinet last month and is now making its way to the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade for review.
Likely to provoke an EU challenge, due to Brussels’ chokehold over trade policy, wherein the OTB would be seen as a test case for future Israeli sanctions, naturally the Bill has earned a lot of ink from pro-Zionist activists both sides of the Atlantic.
The EU’s stance on Gaza has exposed a deeper tension: Ireland’s ethical instincts vs Europe’s geopolitical realism. Gaza is puncturing that comfort. Brussels’ ambiguity and alignment with Israel is confronting Irish public opinion with EU realities.
Writing in the WSJ, legal expert Eugene Kontorovich made it clear that the Republic would be jeopardising its tech economy with the OTB potentially invoking a US backlash codified into law.
The American Export Control Reform Act of 2018 and the presence of 30 anti-BDS statutes in individual U.S. states could and would likely be triggered by Ireland’s passing of the OTB leading to constraints on commerce in Dublin.
Already in the bad books, the OTB would further turn the guns of Capitol Hill’s under-strain-yet-omnipotent Israeli lobby against Ireland, with more pro-Zionist EU member states likely to throw a spanner in any infringement process from the European Commission. The inevitable chilling effect against doing business with Ireland would dovetail with Trumpian hostility to our tax regime.
The schism would be jumped upon, as it is already, by both northern unionists and the UK Tory press anxious to typecast the Republic’s defiance on ethnic cleansing in Palestine as a type of ‘wokeness’ of hangover from a medieval type of Catholicism or atavistic nationalism.
On the legalistic side, Israeli companies will not wait to begin WTO litigation against Ireland.
In the Brussels arena, by taking a stand on trade policy—an area where the EU claims exclusive competence—Ireland is testing the boundaries of member-state discretion in the face of moral imperatives. It reopens the question: can smaller states shape the EU’s ethical direction? Something that will be revisited again as relations likely sour with China.
Defenders of the Bill would say the OTB situates Ireland as a moral bridge between Europe and the Global South, a status it once held for its national liberation struggle and anti-apartheid activism. It’s a soft-power move by Ireland to claim global relevance via ethical alignment over raw economic interest.
Ultimately however, Ireland is picking a fight it cannot afford to win or lose with this OTB.
The unadulterated fact is that with no military, no strategic alliances beyond the EU, anti-imperialist rhetoric and soft neutrality, and high dependency on U.S. firms, Ireland lacks the leverage to absorb serious diplomatic retaliation from Israel or the U.S.
Ireland will be painted, fairly or unfairly, as singling out the Jewish state, while continuing business with Saudi Arabia, China, and Gulf autocracies. Once passed, the OTB leaves Ireland with no de-escalation path if relations with Israel or the U.S. sour.
A modest compromise on the OTB would be to require clear labelling of goods from Israeli settlements rather than banning them outright, aligning with EU practice. It is best to present the bill as enforcing UN resolutions, thus shifting it from national activism to multilateral compliance. On the OTB, Ireland’s moral instinct is sound, but it is walking into a geopolitical ambush without a plan or allies. What Ireland attempts in conscience, it fumbles in strategy mistaking symbolic multilateral virtue signalling for sovereign resilience.
Ireland may be morally right on Palestine but in a world ruled by power, being right is never enough.
“Defenders of the Bill would say the OTB situates Ireland as a moral bridge between Europe and the Global South, a status it once held for its national liberation struggle and anti-apartheid activism”
South Africa’s third-largest political party is currently chanting “Kill the Boer”, in case you didn’t notice. Turns out that being reflexively anti-colonial doesn’t always put you on the right side of history.
Ireland’s OTB – MORAL BACKBONE or spineless whimpering inhumane observer.
Had they not dragged their miserable Dàil Deliberations since 2018 on a fundamental question of humanity, considering Irish Peoples historical links to genocide and various forms of ethnic cleansing…they would not be in their present position of effed if you do and
effed if you dont…losing also soft power recognition in diplomacy and Setting Up Ireland as
an International Globalist Scapegoat by EU – US – USRAEL, with future consequences for all.
They’ve always reacted to Foreign Policy using populist woke NGO INFLUENCE, policy on the
run and now the final outcome has cornered them like rats and the squealing has already
began from INSIDER ZIONIST SHATTER…former FG and AG…foreign enemy within…OMG
Adding insult to injury, apart from selling Usraeli War Bonds for EU…in the EU, after finally
sticking their slimey necks out in 2024 to the UN – EU – and ICJ…a mere 7 year waiting pause
They have now been shafted by the US in the form of tariffs and American Trump Ambassador to Ireland
They have also been shafted by Their Own EU who has just agreed with Usrael to continue
trade DESPITE IRELANDS LAME PROTEST
THEY have finally with all due incompetance managed to FUND WAR BOMBING THROUGH THE IRISH TAXPAYERS…Their Own EU has agreed to Trump Billing Bombs for Ukraine.
A week is a long time in Politics
A day is a short time to finish any government sponsored warmongering
A year is more than enough to terminate USE BY DATES on Decades Of NGO IRELAND.
Well done Traitors, NO NEUTRALITY, SOVERIGNTY OR SOFT POWER PEDDELING…Scumlords
But we have lots of leverage! There’s thousands of Israelis living in Ireland, many quite wealthy. Arrest them, nationalise their properties and keep them locked up until the Israeli govt apologises to us, pays compensation, etc.