IT seems so cruelly ironic that, at this time of year, the troubles of the Middle East should come to the fore once more.

Even during Jesus’ time, the lands around his birth country were in turmoil. And yet, here we are again, over two thousand years later, and Bethlehem, in the Palestinian West Bank – just over 40 miles from Gaza city – is almost right at the centre of one of the world’s most vicious and divisive wars.

As we approach Christmas Day, the horror of life in ravaged Palestine is in our newspapers and on our TV screens daily – it cannot be escaped. But it is good and right that we are not allowed to divert our gaze from what is happening to the people of that 6,000sq km strip of land, lest the world forgets about it.

And now, this week, Ireland is once again drawn into a war of words with Israel, following its high profile decision to close down its embassy in Dublin.

Israel has said Ireland has a strong ‘anti-Israeli’ policy, when, in effect, Ireland simply has a strong humanitarian policy, and a policy against breaches of human rights laws and UN conventions.

To add insult to our injury, Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar called Taoiseach Simon Harris ‘anti-semitic’ – a charge the Wicklow man found hugely offensive.

Speaking on the radio earlier this week, the now-removed Israeli ambassador Dana Erlich suggested Ireland’s stance on Israel was more extreme than any other country’s.

‘In most countries we have difficult conversations and we have disagreements – we accept criticism, but this has gone over that line in Ireland. We see Ireland in a more extreme stance than any other country.’

It seems difficult to fathom why Israel is taking such a hard line against a little, neutral country like ours, when they have far bigger fish to fry on an international stage.

But the more they set their sights on this small island in the north Atlantic, the more likely our government is to dig its heels in and refuse to be bullied.

It seems odd for their minister to target Simon Harris with their vitriol when our Tánaiste Micheál Martin has been vocal about his stance on Palestine for a very long time. And Leo Varadkar, as Taoiseach, made those highly controversial comments in November of 2023 when he said that Israel’s reaction to the Hamas atrocities was ‘approaching revenge’.

That was just days into the response, when many other countries were still holding their fire, before commenting on Israel’s reaction to the Hamas attacks.

‘I strongly believe that, like any state, Israel has the right to defend itself, has the right to go after Hamas so that they cannot do this again,’ he said, in the aftermath of the horrific October 7th attacks. ‘But what I’m seeing unfolding at the moment isn’t just self-defence. It looks … it resembles something more approaching revenge,’ he said, in an interview that set the tone for Ireland’s stance on the very one-sided war.

So right since those early days of the conflict, Ireland has been consistent in its criticism of Israel, not because of Israel’s motives, but because of its methods.

Any critical analysis of various Irish senior politicians’ remarks since October 7th 2023 would clearly reveal that there is nothing anti-semitic about taking a view that puts human rights and concern for innocent human beings to the forefront of any commentary.

Few viewers could be unmoved by the daily imagery of orphaned children strolling around collapsed, tented villages and hospitals running on little more than humanity in a devastated Palestine – innocent civilians being used as pawns by both sides, but with no way of escaping it.

When Christmas comes around next week, we would do well to reflect on the randomness of birth, which allowed the native Irish to be born into a country rich in comforts, in resources, but most of all – now, in peace – and remember those who were not so fortunate.

She will never be forgotten

THIS week her friends in Schull will remember their beautiful friend Sophie Toscan du Plantier. They never let a Christmas go by without a celebration of her short life.

The carefree French woman, who had found true tranquillity in her cottage on the hillside at Toormore, before her brutal killing, had friends near and far, but felt very safe in West Cork – until that fateful night.

Now her friends believe that someone living locally holds the secret to what happened her that night, and can finally give her distraught family some peace.

Wouldn’t it be the ultimate gift of Christmas if that person was to come forward and help Sophie’s family to finally get some justice?