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Ireland elects left-wing politician with record of anti-Israel rhetoric as president
Ireland’s new president will be a left-wing politician who has sharply criticized Israel in parliament and faced backlash for comments defending Hamas.
The election of Catherine Connolly, a member of the Irish parliament since 2016, marks the elevation of a vocally anti-Israel voice at a time when Ireland has stood out internationally for its critical stance on Israel. Last year, Israel announced that it would shutter its embassy in Ireland, citing “antisemitic rhetoric of the Irish government.”
Connolly won by a landslide after securing 63% of the votes on Friday, the largest margin in Ireland’s history. She defeated Heather Humphreys, a member of the center-right Fine Gael party.
While Irish presidents represent the country for matters of diplomacy and play an important constitutional role, the position is largely symbolic and they do not have the power to enact laws or policies.
“My message is use your voice in every way you can, because a republic and a democracy needs constructive questioning, and together we can shape a new republic that values everybody,” wrote Connolly in a post on X following her victory.
Connolly drew criticism from Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in September after she described Hamas as “part of the fabric of the Palestinian people,” and said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer should not have “any say about Hamas” leading a future Palestinian state.
After Martin criticized her remarks, saying she was “reluctant to unequivocally condemn 7 October,” Connolly later clarified on BBC Radio that Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack was “absolutely wrong,” but added the attacks did not constitute an attempted genocide and that the history of the conflict “did not start on 7 October.”
“I come from Ireland which has a history of colonization. I would be very wary of telling a sovereign people how to run their country,” Connolly told BBC Radio. “The Palestinians must decide, in a democratic way, who they want to lead their country.”
Ireland has historically supported Palestinians in their conflict with Israel, a stance often linked to the country’s own history of British imperial rule.
As a member of Ireland’s parliament, Connolly has also fiercely criticized Israel, referring to the country as a “terrorist state” and saying that it was not “democratic” — including in comments predating the war in Gaza.
In 2021, Connolly formally accused Israel of attempting to “accomplish Jewish supremacy,” swiftly drawing condemnation from Jewish leaders who said her remarks smacked of antisemitic rhetoric.
The members of the Irish rap duo Kneecap, which has protested Israel on stage and drawn a terrorism charge, now dropped, over the display of a Hezbollah flag, urged voters to cast their ballots for Connolly.
Ireland’s current president, Michael D. Higgins, who served his maximum two terms, also has a record of sharply criticizing Israel.
In January, Jewish attendees were forced to leave a Holocaust memorial ceremony in Dublin after they protested Higgins’ remarks during the event about the war in Gaza, which he called a “horrific loss of life and destruction which has taken place.”
Last month, after a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza, Higgins called the finding a “very, very important document” and suggested that Israel and countries who supply Israel with weapons should be excluded from the United Nations.
Connolly, a 68-year-old lawyer and psychologist, describes herself as a socialist and pacifist. She is also critical of the European Union and NATO and worked to legalize same-sex marriage and abortion in Ireland.
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The post Ireland elects left-wing politician with record of anti-Israel rhetoric as president appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Rubio Says Israeli Strike on Gaza Didn’t Violate Ceasefire
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press following his meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Oct/ 23, 2025. Photo: Fadel Senna/Pool via REUTERS
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Washington does not view a strike that Israel said targeted a member of a Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza as a violation of a US-backed ceasefire.
Israel said it struck a member of the Islamic Jihad group on Saturday, accusing the individual of planning to attack Israeli troops. Islamic Jihad denied it was planning an attack.
Speaking aboard President Donald Trump’s plane during a trip to Asia, Rubio said: “We don’t view that as a violation of the ceasefire.”
The US top diplomat added that Israel has not surrendered its right to self-defense as part of the agreement brokered by Washington, Egypt, and Qatar that saw the main terrorist faction in Gaza, Hamas, release the remaining living hostages held in Gaza this month.
“They have the right if there’s an imminent threat to Israel, and all the mediators agree with that,” Rubio said.
Rubio said the ceasefire in Gaza, which remains in force between Israel and Hamas just over two years since the war began, was based on obligations on both sides, reiterating that Hamas needs to speed up the return of the remains of hostages who died in captivity.
Israel’s Saturday strike came shortly after Rubio departed Israel after a visit aimed at shoring up the ceasefire.
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Pope Leo to Visit Eight Cities in Turkey, Lebanon on First Trip Abroad as Pontiff
Pope Leo XIV arrives to lead the Mass for the Jubilee of Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Oct. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Pope Leo will visit eight towns and cities in Turkey and Lebanon later this year, the Vatican said on Monday, his first trip outside Italy as pontiff, and he is expected to make appeals for peace across the region.
Leo, the first US pope, will visit Turkey from Nov. 27 to 30 and then will be in Lebanon from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.
Leo‘s predecessor Pope Francis had planned to visit both countries but was unable to go because of his worsening health. Francis died on April 21, and Leo was elected as the new pope on May 8 by the world’s cardinals.
A central part of the visit to Turkey will be several joint events with Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s 260 million Orthodox Christians, who is based in Istanbul.
They will celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of a major early Church council, which took place in Nicaea, now called Iznik.
“It is profoundly symbolical that Pope Leo … will visit [the patriarch] on his first official journey,” Rev. John Chryssavgis, an adviser to Bartholomew, told Reuters.
Leo will also meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in the capital Ankara, visit the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, and will celebrate a Catholic Mass at Istanbul’s Volkswagen Arena.
In Lebanon, the pope will meet President Joseph Aoun in Beirut, will host an inter-religious meeting, and will lead an outdoor Mass on the Beirut waterfront.
The pope will also pray at the site of the 2020 chemical explosion at the Beirut port that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage.
Traveling abroad has become a major part of the modern papacy, with popes seeking to meet local Catholics, spread the faith, and conduct international diplomacy.
A new pope‘s first travels are usually seen as an indication of the issues the pontiff wants to highlight during his reign.
Both Turkey and Lebanon are majority Muslim countries, and Francis put a strong focus on Muslim-Catholic dialogue during a 12-year reign that included 47 trips abroad.
The official motto of Leo‘s Lebanon trip is “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
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Israel Won’t Accept Turkish Armed Forces in Gaza, Foreign Minister Says
A drone view shows tents used by displaced Palestinians amid destroyed buildings, following the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the area, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Gaza City, Oct. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Israel won’t accept the presence of Turkish armed forces in Gaza under a US plan to end war in the Palestinian territory for good, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday.
US President Donald Trump’s plan includes an international force in Gaza to help secure a fragile ceasefire which began this month, halting two years of war between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
But it remains unclear whether Arab and other states will be ready to commit troops to the international force. “Countries that want or are ready to send armed forces should be at least fair to Israel,” Saar said at a news conference in Budapest.
Once warm Turkish-Israeli relations soured drastically during the Gaza war, with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan lambasting Israel‘s air and ground campaign in the Palestinian enclave and even threatening an invasion of the Jewish state.
“Turkey, led by Erdogan, led a hostile approach against Israel,” Saar said, speaking alongside his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto. “So, it is not reasonable for us to let their armed forces enter the Gaza Strip and we will not agree to that, and we said it to our American friends,” Saar said.
While the Trump administration has ruled out sending US soldiers into the Gaza Strip, it has been speaking to Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and Azerbaijan to contribute to the multinational force.
Last week Netanyahu hinted that he would be strongly opposed to any role for Turkish security forces in Gaza. On Sunday, he said Israel would decide which foreign forces to allow in Gaza.
“We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate,” Netanyahu said.
“This is, of course, acceptable to the United States as well, as its most senior representatives have expressed in recent days,” he told a session of his cabinet.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a visit to Israel aimed at shoring up the truce, said on Friday the international force would have to be made up of “countries that Israel‘s comfortable with.” He made no comment on Turkish involvement.
Rubio added that Gaza’s future governance still needed to be worked out among Israel and partner nations but could not include Hamas.
Rubio later said that US officials were receiving input on a possible UN resolution or international agreement to authorize the multinational force in Gaza and would discuss the issue in Qatar, a key Gulf mediator on Gaza, on Sunday.
Turkey and Qatar are both key, long-time backers of Hamas.
A major challenge to Trump’s plan is that Hamas has balked at disarming. Since the ceasefire took hold two weeks ago as the first stage of Trump’s 20-point plan, Hamas has waged a violent crackdown on clans that have tested its grip on power.
At the same time, the remains of 13 deceased hostages remain in Gaza with Hamas citing obstacles to locating them in the pervasive rubble left by the fighting.
An Israeli government spokesperson said on Sunday Hamas, which released the remaining 20 living hostages it took in its Oct. 7, 2023, assault, knew where the bodies were.
“Israel is aware that Hamas knows where our deceased hostages are, in fact, located. If Hamas made more of an effort, they would be able to retrieve the remains of our hostages,” the spokesperson said.
Israel had, however, allowed the entry of an Egyptian technical team to work with the Red Cross to locate the bodies. She said the team would use excavator machines and trucks for the search beyond the so-called yellow line in Gaza behind which Israeli troops have initially pulled back under Trump’s plan.
Netanyahu began the cabinet session by stressing Israel was an independent country, rejecting the notion that “the American administration controls me and dictates Israel‘s security policy.” Israel and the US, he said, are a “partnership.”