An Tánaiste in the Holy Land: Is Irish Neutrality the Price of Martin’s Commission Dreams

 

The Cork TD bit the bullet of disingenuous questions about De Valera’s condolences to Hitler and alleged antisemitism in Ireland this week. An Tánaiste Micheál Martin touched down in Israel as part of a week-long state visit to the Middle East.

Hoping to find respite in the Levant as a change from a Cabinet room where many of his own party colleagues wish to end his 12 years of anaemic leadership Martin even went as far as to vocally blast comparisons between Israel and South Africa in what could amount to a shift in Irish diplomatic outlook on Palestine.

Indeed, while an FF heave against Martin has been long in the offing significant speculation is being given whether the Leeside politico could fill the boots as the EU’s top foreign policy official in 2024 despite his own personal claims to the contrary.

A half-formed attempt to create a unified foreign policy executive, Martin is being potentially earmarked for chief of the European External Action Service (EEAS) with his international profile being ideal for the role.

An English-speaking Europhile from a liberal-democratic Western European nation that is on good terms with the Biden administration, An Tánaiste meets all the criteria for the job. One even wonders if Martin’s overly enthusiastic support for the war in Ukraine, far beyond what even the worst cynics of Ireland’s foreign policy direction had ever imagined, has been motivated by the potential of high office in Brussels when he washes out of domestic party politics.

While not as beholden to the Israeli lobby as the hallowed halls of American democracy or Westminster, some degree of Israeli approval is needed for such a senior Commission gig hence perhaps Martin’s softening on Palestine.

Ireland’s good-natured anti-imperialism towards Palestine is perhaps the last remaining signifier of an independent foreign policy outlook as the state is de facto integrated as a cog into the Euro-Atlantic military bloc after a near century of partial De Valerian pseudo (autonomy).

Formal Irish membership of NATO is unfeasible due to lack of public support and our political volatility (imagine the chaos of a Sinn Féin-Left regime representing Ireland at a NATO summit) as the simple fact remains that we are so militarily helpless Anglo-American powers run our defence regardless of which government is in Leinster House.

Regardless there are more palatable and discrete ways that the Republic can be absorbed into NATO and the various EU partnerships in the Balkans, Ukraine and Mediterranean are just one of them with Irish defence stockpiles being deployed on the field of battle as you read these words. While Paddy public are still under the impression that the two entities are separate the EU and NATO are bound at the hip especially after this war as partners against a belligerent Russia as a new Cold War against China beckons and threatens to undermine Ireland’s Silicon Valley economy.

The Irish state and the limited opportunities it offers to men who want to raise themselves above pothole politics is a major contributing factor to the rush towards globalism with the likelihood of Roderic O’Gorman landing some cushy UN job after flooding the country with asylum seekers another motivating factor to our inordinate response to the refugee “permacriss” caused by Ukraine and continued march of the Global South.

Unloved by his party comrades and almost despised by the general public Martin has a bright future ahead of him as an EU henchman if he wishes in an unaccountable wing of the globalist leviathan.