The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, paid a fleeting visit to Ireland yesterday, the first one by a holder of his office. It is a most welcome precedent, which should be followed by visits which provide more opportunity for insight, dialogue and critical engagement than this foreshortened exercise in the diplomacy of damage limitation.
Mr Netanyahu emphasised two major concerns of his short lived government: its desire to improve relations with Europe and to implement the Oslo peace accords. Both messages were welcomed by the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste and will presumably be duly registered in whatever statement is drawn up under their authority for consideration by European Union heads of state and government who meet in Dublin next weekend. The Middle East peace process has been a prominent issue during the Irish EU Presidency and is a growing interest for the Union.
Mr Netanyahu has much ground to make up on both counts. His government has, arguably, done more during its brief term to damage relations between Israel and Europe than any of its predecessors. This is because of the major uncertainty it has introduced to a process many Europeans had assumed was on course to deliver a more stable environment in a neighbouring area of crucial concern. Is Mr Netanyahu genuinely ready to continue the peacemaking, despite the election rhetoric that brought him to power, which seems to contradict much of the progress established by his Labour predecessors? Is he fully aware of the damage he could do to his country if he fails so to reassure European governments?
He has had to respond to several important initiatives taken during the Irish EU presidency. The Middle East was the most prominent foreign policy matter considered at the Dublin summit meeting on October 5th. It agreed to despatch Mr Spring to the region in a whirlwind tour which underlined the new concerns about Mr Netanyahu's intentions. Since then successive visits, notably by the French president, Mr Chirac, have underlined them. The appointment of a special EU envoy to the peace process - the Spanish ambassador to Israel, Mr Miguel Angel Moratinos - institutionalises these concerns, although his terms of reference are longer on diplomatic talk than on concrete responsibilities.
Mr Yasser Arafat also made an all too brief trip to Dublin last month to express his fears that the new Israeli government is not prepared to implement the Oslo accords. He was pleased to find a sympathetic hearing, in the hope that this could rebalance the international involvement in the region.
Palestinians argue, with much good reason, that the United States has lent unduly towards the Israelis, despite the clear preference of Mr Clinton's administration for the defeated Mr Peres. The European Union has a powerful and legitimate role to play in the Middle East peace process, based on geographical propinquity, economic interest and geopolitical concern. It is just as well that this is fully appreciated by Mr Netahyahu's government as it faces into the real period of choice in which it must make up its mind whether fully to engage its Palestinian and Arab partners in the search for peace. Mr Netanyahu's message in Dublin yesterday was an encouraging but as yet unconvincing commitment to such a course.