DUBLIN — Sinn Féin, the nationalist party on course to top the polls in Ireland’s next election, is embracing Palestinians and condemning Israel as it builds populist appeal in a land where Jews are a tiny minority.

This didn’t always look inevitable — despite Sinn Féin’s decades-old alliance with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Until recently, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald had been pushing a more nuanced line on Gaza, reflecting Sinn Féin’s ambitions of gaining power in the Republic of Ireland for the first time ever as it continues to grow from its Northern Ireland base.

Sorry, Biden: Ireland’s Sinn Féin embraces Palestinians and shuns Israel

Mary Lou McDonald, whose Irish republican party is favored to win the next election, dumps her more nuanced stance on Israel in the face of grassroots anger over Gaza.