“Apparently Israelis are received more warmly in the Arab Gulf than they are on the Emerald Isle,” wrote Mark Regev, a former adviser to the Israeli prime minister in the Jerusalem Post last year. In an article titled “Why does Ireland hate Israel?”, Mr Regev, who also served as ambassador to the UK, said Ireland was probably one of the most hostile countries to Israel in the European Union. Old-fashioned anti-Semitism is one reason for this, he said. Another is Ireland’s tendency to view the Arab-Israeli conflict “through a distorted lens” and equate Israel’s actions with that of colonial British....