Masterful Trump administration diplomacy quietly averts a crisis and protects Israel

By Thomas Lifson, AMERICAN THINKER

The media/Democrat complex convinced a lot of people that President Trump would wreck American diplomacy with his recklessness. But the only thing that his diplomacy has damaged is the bipartisan establishment that has pushed failed policies on Israel for more than a generation. His announcement of our embassy move to Jerusalem confirmed that the dire warnings about such a move were merely a defensive tactic of the failures that have mismanaged foreign policy.

Today, we are learning via anonymous sources that Team Trump has pulled off another coup, derailing a vicious anti-Israel move that was on the verge of becoming law in the Republic of Ireland. As unitedwithisrael.org reported yesterday:

The Irish parliament, the Seanad, on Tuesday gave initial approval to a bill that would boycott goods produced by Israeli companies based in Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights.

The Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 would make it a violation of Irish criminal law to purchase goods and services from Israeli companies based in Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights. It would punish violators with up to five years in prison.

Independent senator Frances Black, who introduced the bill, has previously signed a letter calling for a boycott of all Israeli products and services.

The bill, if enacted into law as appeared probable, would have jailed Irish citizens who bought souvenirs in Jerusalem’s Old City and brought them home, among other things. (snip)

Writing for The Hill, Orde Kittrie, a law professor at Arizona State University, explained that the proposed bill runs afoul of US laws and if enacted, could force US companies with Irish subsidiaries to choose between violating the Irish law or violating the US Export Administration Regulations, which require US firms to refuse to participate in foreign boycotts that the US does not sanction.

The bill would also subject companies to US state-level sanctions, violate European Union and international law, threaten Ireland’s economic links to the US, and hinder the prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

According to the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, some 700 US companies employ over 150,000 people in Ireland. Similarly, some 227 Irish companies employ an estimated 120,000 people in the US.

The bill pandered to an unfortunate strain in Irish politics that demonizes Israel.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the Bank of Ireland

The bias inherent in the bill is obvious because:

…several contentious occupations closer to Europe, including Russia’s occupation of Crimea, Turkey’s occupation of northern Cyprus, Armenia’s occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, and Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara

Enter Trump diplomacy, Adam Kredo in the Free Beacon:

The Trump administration played a key role in thwarting a recent effort by the Irish government to boycott Israel and make it a crime for Irish citizens to purchase products made in contested areas of the Jewish state, a move that would have severely jeopardized Ireland’s trade with the United States, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. (snip)

Upon learning of the effort, senior Trump administration officials in the State Department are said to have scrambled to open up channels to Irish leaders in a bid to scuttle the bill and avoid a standoff with the Irish government over the measure.

Trump administration officials are said to have made clear to Irish leaders that passage of the bill would put them starkly at odds with the United States and subject them to inclusion on a list of countries supporting boycotts of the Jewish state.

While some Irish lawmakers described the effort as a “crackpot bill,” its passage through the Parliament was all but assured until U.S. officials from the Trump administration became involved, multiple sources told the Free Beacon.

“All the credit here goes to the Trump State Department,” said one senior official at a major pro-Israel organization who is familiar with the administration’s efforts to stop the bill.

“This law was a done deal in Ireland. It was going to pass, and there would have been this insane situation where the Irish would be sending people to jail for buying souvenirs in the Old City, while the U.S. would have to put them on our list of countries that boycott Israel, which is not a good list to be on,” said the source, who would only speak on background about the diplomacy, which U.S. officials are said to be keeping under wraps in order to avoid offending the Irish government.

“Instead, the State Department found out what was happening, and they scrambled to alert the Irish to the nature and risks of their own law, and Irish lawmakers came to their senses,” the source said. “Crisis averted, at least for now.”

The Irish boycott bill was ultimately tabled until the summer, though some sources expect that the bill will not be revisited anytime soon following Trump administration diplomatic efforts to oppose the legislation.

Nonetheless, I expect Jewish donors to the Democrats to remain uninformed about this Irishs triumph, as well as this, and continue to fund the party that comfortable with Jew-haters.