Massive car bombs and suicide bombers. Rocket and organized gun attacks. Senseless killings of innocent civilians and city officials. Take away the scenery and language, and the threat of terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland is not that much different from those in Israel.
So what does the recent 400-pound car bomb that failed to detonate outside police-reform headqaurters in Belfast mean for Israel? Actually, a lot. First, deadly attacks are rising to a new level with a bomb this size. Second, while the police department and citizens of Belfast can count their blessings, it’s clear that next time they may not be so lucky. And third, it goes to show that no matter how many peace agreements are in place between Israel and the Palestinians there will always be dissident Palestinian groups that form to eliminate Israel.
History says it all. Even after the mainstream IRA signed a cease-fire agreement in Northern Ireland on April 10, 1998 known as the Good Friday Agreement, the fringe group who calls themselves the Real IRA committed its deadliest terrorist act about four months later in a major car bombing in Omagh that killed 29 people and wounded more than 300.
There’s no question that fringe group attacks in Northern Ireland have not reached the same scale as those carried out by the mainstream IRA, which is responsible for killing nearly 1,800 people in both Northern Ireland and Britain from 1970 – 1997. But the groups do present a serious and present threat is escalating in Northern Ireland and is likely to continue. Their goal is simple: to overturn any peace agreements reached between larger groups.
Besides geography, a major difference separates whether peace will endure in Northern Ireland opposed to Israel. Dissident groups in Northern Ireland want to unite it with the rest of Ireland (Northern Ireland is currently occupied by Britain) whereas Palestinian-backed factions fight because they want to wipe Israel off the map. While Northern Ireland has a power-sharing agreement in place that many deem a miracle compared with decades of bloodshed, it might take more than a miracle to change the animosity that fuels Palestinian and Arab hostility towards Israel. A two-state or one-state solution is like slapping a bandage on a hemorrhaging wound. How can Israel live in peace with Arab factions who continually vow to annihilate the Jewish state?
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