Despite that, anyone with even a flimsy understanding of history and the savageries inflicted on Jews must celebrate Israel’s existence.

However, the sensibility and the humanity behind that recognition recoil from Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians trying to live normal lives in their homelands.

That Israel dismisses such criticism as anti-Semitism makes a difficult situation more fraught.

That routine and dishonest response is an attempt to silenceall criticism and frames Israel’s relationship with the civilised world in a self-perpetuating spiral of despair.

It immediately closes the possibility of negotiations, a tragedy confirmed by the failure of the grand peace processes of the 1990s which once seemed to offer such hope for all of the Middle East.

The recent film clip showing, apparently, an Israeli sniper celebrating the murder of an unarmed Palestinian at a border fence suggests a culture that has no interest in reviving a peace process but rather one determined to subjugate all opposition.

These criticisms must be leavened by a recognition of the core ambition behind the establishment of Israel — to build a place where Jews could be safe from pogrom, murder, displacement and bestial hatred. Resurgent anti-Semitism and the nightmares that atavistic ignorance reawakens strengthen that obligation.

So too does the understandable but unacceptable threat of terrorist attack faced by Israelis.

Despite that aggressive imperialism, one reliant on $3.2bn (€2.6bn) a year in American military subvention, there is more to Israel than violence feeding suppression and insurrection.

The country has a standard of living that rivals Western Europe. It has scientific achievements and military and technological capacity beyond its modest size. It sustains good diplomatic links with most of the world.

Ruled by Benjamin Netanyahu for almost a decade the country is regularly accused of war crimes against Palestinians, millions of whom it has controlled for decades without granting them a vote. Its occupation of the West Bank and its life-choking blockade of Gaza hardly define a modern, tolerant democracy.

As we know building a stable society on shaky foundations is an unending task and one not guaranteed to succeed. Despite that, and even if Israel’s hard right might sneer, they may have something to learn from the Irish experience.

Conflict ends when talks begin. Racism or bigotry cannot prevail indefinitely. Intolerance and injustice energise terrorism.

Trust must eventually replace hate.

These are simple but powerful ideas that if embraced by Israel and those it treats so very poorly might make the celebrations around Israel’s 80th birthday more meaningful than those seen this week.

Let us wish Israel well but let us hope it finds the courage to change its ways — ways so like those that validates its existence but also represent the greatest threat to its existence.