RAMALLAH

AS THE TEMPERATURE of the deteriorating relations between Ireland and Israel continues to rise, the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, the semi-officially recognized de facto Government of partially-recognized Palestine, has demonstrated that because it is so busy quietly co-operating with the Israelis in fighting sundry militant Palestinian groups in its own fiefdom, around Jenin, it is happy to leave active support for Gaza’s predicament to the Government in Dublin.

“The dog that hasn’t barked, they call it on the West Bank,” says Walid, a retired militant based across the Jordan River in the Hashemite Kingdom that borders Israel and the West Bank Palestinian territories. “You have Ireland – yes, Ireland – and Sweden, and places like that, screaming hell about what is going on in Gaza, but the West Bank, where the majority of Palestinians live, where the Palestinian Authority resides, has hardly raised a complaint about the Israeli assault, let alone risen in support against the Jewish state. No bullets, no rocks, no bottles. The usual platitudes on diplomatic platforms but the only military action taken by the Palestinian Authority is against Palestinian militant forces on its own turf – in conjunction with Israel, if you don’t mind. If I wasn’t sure that all Palestinians are brothers and sisters, I might think that the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank – which was driven out of office by Hamas in Gaza a couple of decades ago – might be quietly wishing the Israelis have a degree of success in their attempts to crush Hamas. If I wasn’t sure of the loyalty of my brothers and sisters. Yes.”