Elaine Loughlin: Irish views on Gaza 'don't even register' in Washington

As a member of the Capitol Hill press pool commented, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's intervention about Gaza is 'like a gnat on a windshield — it doesn’t even register' 

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaking during the Friends of Ireland luncheon on Capitol Hill during which the host, House Speaker Mike Johnson, reaffirmed US support for 'our allies and friends' in Israel. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

"It's like a gnat on a windshield, it doesn’t even register,” was how one senior member of the Capitol’s press pool described Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s Gaza interventions in Washington.

It was a blunt but honest remark that you will not hear from US president Joe Biden who was keen to ham up his roots in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day, and who was doling out lines like “may the hinge of our friendship never go rusty” to the Taoiseach in the Oval office.

Ireland may be a true friend of the US but it is clear that it is a relationship in which the dominant party does not care what the weaker one has to say, especially when it comes to the highly contentious issue of Israel and Gaza. 

Before the annual Oval Office meeting, Mr Varadkar had been accused of watering down his language and when asked about this he admitted the need to “get the tone right and tailor the message for the audience”.

However, in truth the audience was never going to be fully tuned in. Even if he had gone full nuclear, Ireland’s influence in world events is peripheral.

We may be the land of St Patrick, Guinness, and a lucrative corporation tax rate, but the US has no interest in our view on how it should be interacting with its key allies.

Careful steps: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, US president Joe Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson, leaving the Friends of Ireland luncheon on Capitol Hill on Friday. Picture: Andrew Harnik/AP

Forty-two steep stone steps lead down from the door of the Capitol.

It was this flight of stairs that the US political media wound up into a nervous tizzy yesterday afternoon — and not for anything the leader of the Irish government had to say.

A scrum of reporters, photographers, and camera operators waiting at the bottom was growing increasingly anxious about how president Biden would make it down the threads to his waiting convoy below.

In the end, Mr Biden, led out by a bagpiper in a kilt and flanked by the Taoiseach and speaker of the house Mike Johnson, descended without a hitch.

Theme of friendship 

Earlier that morning in the White House, Mr Biden was continuing the theme of friendship that Leo Varadkar used in a speech after touching down in Boston.

Referencing a story about a seanchaí who was gifted a field of gold for his honesty to the king, Mr Varadkar had suggested that true friends tell each other difficult truths and not simply what they want to hear.

“Ireland has always been a true friend to the United States,” Mr Varadkar had told an audience in the JFK Presidential library.

House Speaker reaffirms US support of Israel 

And so maybe speaker Johnson was a true friend when he set out the American reality at a lunch in the Capitol, that was attended by Mr Varadkar, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald, and the attorney general Rossa Fanning. Turning to the Middle East, Mr Johnson told the gathering that “our allies and friends” in Israel “continue to fight for their very right to exist”.

Mr Varadkar was also made well aware of how his friends in the US felt when he was greeted with stony silence in mentioning the atrocities that are unfolding in Gaza and the need for a ceasefire.

Just minutes earlier, the Taoiseach had received a strong round of applause for calling out and condemning the actions of Russia in Ukraine.

While president Biden was all smiles and shamrocks during his introductory remarks in the Oval Office, even agreeing with Mr Varadkar that a two-state solution is the long-term goal, he made his position clear when the media was ushered out of the room.

Biden makes stance on Israel clear

Speaking afterward, Mr Varadkar said the president had been very clear that the US would continue to support Israel and to assist Israel to defend itself.

“So I don’t think that’s going to change,” he said.

“It was the president who raised the issue of US military support for Israel. The US is very clear that it will continue to support Israel.”

Before his trip to Washington this year, many in Ireland, who are horrified by Israel’s brutal and indiscriminate killing of Palestinian women and children, had called for the Taoiseach to boycott the St Patrick’s Day events.

Snubbing the president of the United States would have sent out a powerful signal, campaigners said.

Limited US interest in Irish views

Mr Varadkar in defending his decision said the Irish government does not have a policy of boycott and stressed that he would use his time to strongly relay Ireland’s position on Gaza.

However, even the Taoiseach must have known that this week’s conversation with Mr Biden and others in the US would be of little consequence.

It may feel like the Irish are VIPs when the green carpet is rolled out every year in America.

The visiting taoiseach of the day usually has a captive audience when talking about the Northern Ireland peace process and the millions of Americans who claim to have Irish roots.

Politicians, whether Democrat or Republican, can all get on board with the wearing of the green, especially in an election year. However, when the Taoiseach tried to tell our true friends what they needed to hear, he quickly found out they simply were not interested in listening.