The Irish government stands with the Palestinians, as does most of the country. A moral foreign policy is a sign of what the country believes in but where does it take us beyond that? Will Ireland sanction Israel ? Many doubt it given the more than 5 billion euros in trade between both economies. Both economies are tied together by the global multinational tech industry, umbilically linked by corporate America. We paint the likely end-game in the Middle East, and conclude there are two broad ways forward. The first is the South Africa model where a pariah Israel changes tack and Ireland's gets first mover advantage - moral and ahead of the game. The second is the Jihad/Settler dystopia, where an ongoing jihad/settler war mutates constantly with no peace and Palestine becomes a ward of Hamas. This scenario means Irish foreign policy gets bogged down with consequences way beyond our control.
","author_name":"David McWilliams & John Davis"}