On October 26 the people of Ireland voted overwhelmingly for Catherine Connolly as their new president.  Receiving 63% of first-preference votes, she broke a record in Irish presidential election history and won a landslide victory.

Connolly, a left-wing politician with a history of pro-Palestinian advocacy and anti-Israel invective, is one of Europe’s most outspoken critics of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.  She has labeled Israel “a terrorist state”, asserted that “Israel has committed genocide in Gaza”, and has pledged to “stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people as long as I have breath in my body”.

In speeches before her election she condemned Hamas’s October 7, 2023 on Israel attack as a war crime, but criticized the Irish government and EU institutions for “standing idly by” and failing to enforce the Genocide Convention against Israel. She called for sanctions.​

Approving the recent recognition of Palestinian statehood by a clutch of governments, she disagreed with those who insisted that Hamas should be excluded from the future governance of Gaza.  She said it is “not for” foreign leaders like UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to dictate who governs Palestinians, maintaining that “Hamas is part of the fabric of the Palestinian people”, having been “democratically elected”.

Her stance on Gaza, Hamas and Israel featured prominently during her presidential campaign.  It led, inevitably, to strong opposition from Jewish and pro-Israel voices. Even some political allies distanced themselves from her comments.

Those opposing her views clearly had only a minimal effect on the result of the election.  What Connolly’s overwhelming........

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