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An Irish Peace? OTHER NATIONS An Irish Peace? ton, England, killed two children last March, thousands in the Irish Republic joined in demonstrations against political "The Patriot Game" by Conor Cruise O'Brien, in violence and the IRA. National Review (Apr. 26,1993), 150 E. 35th St., New In Northern Ireland, however, which is part York, N.Y. 10016. of the United Kingdom, about one-third of the Catholic minority regularly votes for Sinn Fein, and many other Catholics, O'Brien says, During more than two decades of terrorism in, "live in a condition of ambivalent neutrality and from, Northern Ireland, the prevailing po- between the IRA and the security forces, and litical wisdom has been that patient negotia- in some fear of both. The Protestant (Unionist, tions will eventually lead to a general solution, Loyalist) majority there is strongly hostile to which will then isolate the terrorists and ren- the IRA, from which its members have been der them harmless. This approach-exempli- under lethal attack for more than 20 years fied by the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985- now." Northern Ireland's condition increas- has failed, Irish historian and politician Conor ingly resembles civil war. Cruise O'Brien argues. It is time, he contends, Under the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, for more radical measures. the Republic acknowledged British sover- There is now, O'Brien notes, very little sup- eignty over Protestant-dominated Northern port in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Ireland so long as that was desired by the Republic of Ireland for the predominantly majority of its inhabitants, and in return Catholic Irish Republican Army (IRA) and its Dublin was to be given an advisory role in the armed struggle against Britain. In the general devolution of power from London to Northern election last November, Sinn Fein, the IRA'S Ireland. However, O'Brien observes, not only political arm, won less than two percent of the did IRA violence become "even more auda- vote. After IRA bomb explosions in Warring- cious and spectacular," but the Loyalists, feel- Supporters of the Irish Republican Army in Derq, Northern Ireland. The IRA and its violent campaign against Britain have very little support across the border, in the Republic of Ireland. PERIODICALS 147 ing betrayed, prepared for their own cam- IRA member, in Northern Ireland. paign of violence, which erupted in 1992. "The peace movement in the Republic, "The Protestant backlash. is now a laudable and welcome as it is in itself, will not grim and sustained reality." In Northern end the smoldering civil war in Northern Ire- Ireland last year, the earlier pattern was land," O'Brien writes. What is needed, he says, reversed: More Catholics were killed by is for the British government to begin "selec- Protestants than vice versa. Immediately tive internment of the terrorist leaderships, after the two children in Warrington were both Nationalist and Loyalist, who intimidate slain, Protestant paramilitary forces killed their own communities, dominate them, and six Catholics, including an acknowledged then use them as bases for murderous attacks 148 WQ SUMMER 1993 on the other community." Efforts to get at the czarist Russian Empire and the Hapsburg these "paramilitary godfathers" through the Austro-Hungarian Empire. And the great na- courts are of no use, he says, because evidence tional and social upheavals in these areas gave against them is always unobtainable. rise to the cultural and intellectual renaissance, Internment did not work in Northern Ire- the Jewish Haslrala (Enlightenment),that later led land in 19.72, when it was applied on a mass to Zionism." scale but only to Catholics. That led to Catho- Budapest-born Theodor Herzl and other lic mass protests throughout the world. But Zionists were greatly inspired by 19th-century now, O'Brien argues, the circumstances are Polish, Czech, and Hungarian nationalism. The very different: "Today, there are two terrorist revival of Hebrew literature in Eastern Europe campaigns, equally ferocious and indiscrimi- owed much to Polish romanticism and the Rus- nate, which between them hold the whole of sian literary tradition. The revival of Hebrew as Northern Ireland in fear, and can strike far be- a literary and spoken language, not just a sacral yond the borders of that province. There is tongue, owed much to the central role that lan- every reason to believe that the great majority guage played in Polish, German, Czech, and of people in Northern Ireland, in both commu- Hungarian nationalism. Even the Israeli national nities, would rejoice to learn that both sets of anthem, Hatilcva (which begins, "Our hope is not godfathers were safely under lock and key.'' yet lost") was fashioned after the Polish anthem All terrorism would not end, O'Brien acknowl- (which begins "Poland is not yet lost.") edges, but "a sustained and determined The Holocaust and then the explicitly anti-Israeli counter-terrorist effort" will eventually bring and anti-Jewish communist regimes in Eastern Eu- peace. rope cut off Israelis from their heritage, Avineri says. In the minds of many Israelis, Poland became iden- fafied with Auschwitz and the Warsaw Ghetto up rising. "That Jews have lived in Poland for almost a Israel Returns thousand years, have survived despite repeated per- seditions, and have created a rich Jewishculture that To Its Roots to a large extent became the defining factor in mod- em Jewish identity, was mostly forgotten." "Israel and the End of the Cold War" by Shlomo Now, many Israelis are returning to their Avineri, in The Brookings Review (Spring 1993), 1775 Mass. Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. roots. "Younger Israelis are traveling to Eastern Europe to find the villages and shtetls of their parents or grandparents-not out of nostalgia, The end of the Cold War has transformed poli- but out of keen interest to understand better their tics in the Middle East. The radical Arab forces own origins, their own family history, their own have lost their Soviet patron, and the Israelis feel identity," Avineri says. The removal of the im- less threatened. But a second, less obvious con- mense barrier, in part psychological, that for de- sequence of the Soviet empire's collapse is also cades prevented this rediscovery of European making for greater stability in the region, accord- cultural roots may not have immediate political ing to Avineri, of the Hebrew University of consequences, he acknowledges, but it is likely Jerusalem.This development is the reforging of to be significant in the long run. Although many cultural ties between Israel and Central and East- Jews in Israel are from other traditions (Yemeni, ern Europe. Moroccan, Kurdish, Iraqi), those with roots in The Jewish people and the Zionist movement, Central and Eastern Europe predominate. As which gave birth to Israel as a nation in 1948, their ties to their heritage are re-established and have deep roots in the region, Avineri points strengthened, the eventual result is likely to be out. "Before 1882, when the great mass of Jew- an Israel "less alienated . from some of the ish immigration from the Russian Empire to the formative elements of its own identity." That West and to Palestine started, more than 80 per- in itself, Avineri believes, is likely to be a contri- cent of the world's Jews lived in two countries: bution to peace in the Middle East. PERIODICALS 149 .
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