Ireland in Israel

Last night we went to a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the local pub. I kid
you not! It was held on March 18, in deference to Israeli realities, since
March 17 evening fell on Shabbat. 'Le Pub' at the nearby Carmel Hotel held
its annual St. Patrick's Day celebration, organized by the Israel Ireland
Friendship Association. It was replete with an Irish band, named "Emerald",
authentic Irish dancing, and the new Irish Ambassador to Israel, Michael
Forbes, who came and sat down and talked to us, he was most friendly and
gracious. Contrary to rumor there was no kosher green beer.
Of course, there were a lot of Irish immigrants present, Netanya seems to be
their center. The band, which was very good, was made up of a mixture of
Irish Jewish immigrants to Israel and others, notably Israeli-born and
American immigrants. The dancing was done by a group from a local dancing
school, that specifically learned an Irish dance for the occasion. They and
their teacher were all Russian Jewish immigrants to Israel, so it was quite a
melting pot. The other dancers who were Israelis were really authentic,
calling themselves Rince (Gaelic for dance) two Israeli men and a girl, who
has a diploma in Caille dancing (I suppose its the soft shoe form) from a
school in Dublin. They also did jigs and tap dances.
The President of the IIFA said that he was going to talk to his counterpart in
Ireland, and try to organize an exchange, so that the Irish group would visit
Israel and the Israeli group would visit Ireland in complementary exchanges.
The Ambassador spoke briefly (it was a noisy bar) about the common features of
Irish and Jewish Diaspora, and how Jews had played a role in Irish
independence, including the family of former President Herzog of Israel, whose
father had been the Chief Rabbi of Ireland. The Ambassador admitted that
relations between Israel and Ireland had not been as friendly as they should
be (mainly because Ireland has taken a decidedly pro-Palestinian position in
recent years). But, as I pointed out to him later, now that Ireland is a rich
country (its GDP per capita was $34,280 in 2004, while Israel's was $17,380)
it is hardly appropriate for it to have a third world foreign policy. There
have also been some prominent Irish supporters of Israel, such as Conor Cruise
O'Brien, former UN representative of Ireland and author of the excellent book,
"The Siege: the Saga of Israel and Zionism."
Many years ago we had an Irish friend who marveled at how Israel had managed
to resuscitate its own ancient language, Hebrew, while Ireland had not managed
to do the same with Gaelic. Of course, there are reasons for this, including
the fact that Jewish immigrants came to Israel from 90 countries speaking many
languages, and so needed a lingua franca.
Ireland and Israel have much in common, including size and relative stage of
development. The amount of goodwill for Ireland evidenced at last night's
celebration should be a basis on which to build, but not a one-way street.