In Israel's case, the BDS muck of the Irish - by Michael Freund

...Those who stood by silently during the greatest atrocity ever committed by mankind have no moral authority to lecture the Jewish people about their struggle for survival. Whether Irish parliamentarians or mayors like it or not, Israel and its presence in Judea and Samaria are here to stay.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
15 July '18..
Link: http://www.michaelfreund.org/21391/ireland-israel-boycott

The Emerald Isle lost a lot of its luster this past week when Ireland's Senate chose to adopt a bill that can best be described as obtuse but, more accurately, as profoundly antisemitic at its core.

Passed by a vote of 25 to 20, with 14 abstentions, the legislation would criminalize the import or sale of items produced by Jews, and only by Jews, in Judea and Samaria. It even goes so far as to impose a sentence of up to five years in prison, and fines of €250,000, on those who violate its terms.

While the Irish government opposed the statute, and it still faces various obstacles before becoming law, the decision by the upper body of the Irish parliament to give its stamp of approval to a discriminatory measure singling out Jews is morally obscene.

Consider the following. Under the terms of the bill, a product manufactured by a Palestinian-owned factory in Bethlehem would face no hurdle in being sold in shops throughout Dublin.

But if the exact same item were to be produced by a Jewish-owned factory just a few kilometers down the road in Gush Etzion, its import into the Irish Republic could land a person behind bars.

In other words, although cloaked in opposition to Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria, this legislation in fact boils down to a matter of discrimination based on a person's religious beliefs.

This shameful and offensive bill must not be allowed to become law and Israel should make it clear to Irish officials that bilateral relations between the two countries hinge on it being scrapped forthwith.

Sadly, this is but the latest in a series of high-profile incidents in recent months in which Ireland has excelled at siding with Israel's enemies.

Ireland's Pseudo-Academic Anti-Israel Hate-Fest - by Denis MacEoin

...from the outset, a hate-fest of international anti-Zionist, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric and distortion.

Denis MacEoin..
Gatestone Institute..
07 January '17..

The passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 on December 23 2016 has upset more than one apple cart.[1] By declaring that Israeli settlements have no legal validity and are a "Flagrant Violation of International Law", the resolution has handed the Palestinians a weapon as powerful as any they have used against the Jewish state in their many physical attacks upon it for more than a century. Lawfare has for many years now replaced warfare (although not terror) as the Palestinian method of choice for the long-term elimination of Israel; this new resolution, even if only advisory, is a major step along the way to declare, not just the settlements but the entirety of Israel itself as illegal.

Almost all countries in the world, along with the UN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Arab League and the Socialist "Left" now consider the Zionist project to create a living space for Jews to be a colonialist conspiracy against the "aboriginal" inhabitants of a legendary state of "Palestine". They are conveniently "forgetting" – with a significant dose of anti-Semitism – that for more than 3,000 years, the "original 'aboriginal' inhabitants" were the Jews – along with Ethiopians, Nubians, Carthaginians, Phoenicians, and eventually the Romans, Christians and eventually several Arab Muslim imperialists, culminating in the Ottoman Turks. The Jews were the people who inhabited Canaan; the Jews are why Judea is named Judea.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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A movement that truly hates Israel more than it loves human rights

...Obviously, the shopkeepers don’t actually care about human rights or international law. But, then again, neither do BDS activists.

Dr. Emmanuel Navon..
i24 News..
17 June '15..

A short video recently uploaded on You-Tube by American producer Ami Horowitz says it all about the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement. With a hidden camera, presenting himself as a salesman, Horowitz visits three Irish stores that openly boycott Israeli products. To the first shopkeeper, Horowitz says that he represents a Sudanese company; to the second, that he works for an Iranian farm; and to the third, that he sells the products of a North Korean manufacturer. All three shopkeepers answer negatively when asked by Horowitz if they have any political issue with selling a product from those countries (to the first store-owner, Horowitz insists that his company is “herbicide-free, pesticide-free, Jew-free”). Then Horowitz explains that his company would rather not work with a store that sells Israeli products. “Oh, we don’t, we have a very pro-Palestinian policy,” answers the first shopkeeper. The second proudly discloses a “Boycott apartheid-Israel” sign on his front-door. The third explains: “We have an embargo, we don’t do any Israeli business.”



Obviously, the shopkeepers don’t actually care about human rights or international law. But, then again, neither do BDS activists.

One of the driving forces behind BDS is Omar Barghouti, who co-founded the movement in 2005. Born in Qatar and raised in Egypt, Barghouti moved to the Palestinian Authority. He enrolled at Tel-Aviv University, where he earned a Masters in philosophy and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. Barghouti actively boycotts and defames the country and the university where he is getting his degree and enjoying his academic freedom. Israel is the only country in the Middle East where one has the freedom to boycott and defame one's alma mater.

The purpose of the boycott that Barghouti preaches in his global travels is not to achieve a two-state solution. As Barghouti explained this week in an interview with +972 Magazine, his purpose is the implementation of the so-called “right of return”, which would grant Israeli citizenship to the actual and alleged descendants of the Arab refugees of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war (according to UNRWA, the descendants of the 1948 Arab refugees now number 5 million people). The “right of return” would thus turn pre-1967 Israel into a bi-national state with an Arab majority (the West Bank, by contrast, will be Jew-free). What Barghouti markets as “a moral obligation” is, in fact, the end of Israel.

The four ‘controversial’ words banned at Ireland’s Holocaust event

...HETI’s efforts to break the link between the commemoration of the greatest crime against the Jewish people and the Jewish state are truly shameful, and we again call on the trustees responsible to resign.

Adam Levick..
CiF Watch..
18 December '14..

Further to our post on December 15th about the Master of Ceremonies (MC) for the Holocaust Educational Trust Ireland’s (HETI) Holocaust Commemoration event being forbidden to say the word ‘Israel’ or the phrase ‘the Jewish State’, we now have the closing part of 2014 MC Yanky Fachler’s draft speech which evidently so upset HETI trustees.

It seems that (according to our sources) objections were raised over Fachler saying “And we owe it to the victims, to the survivors, and to ourselves, to prevent the memory of the Holocaust being cynically distorted and hijacked by a vicious campaign that denies the Jewish people and the Jewish state – our past and our future.”

Fachler gave in and omitted the phrase “and the Jewish State” because he did not want to cause trouble. Hence the letter – signed by HETI Chair Peter Cassells – dated October 7th to Fachler, saying that in future, MCs would not be allowed to mention ‘Israel’ or ‘the Jewish State’.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
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Surprised? IDF Saves Irish Troops from Jihadists

...But that, of course, is precisely the problem with seeking to empower your enemies rather than your allies: If you succeed, your allies will no longer be able to help you when you need them.

Evelyn Gordon..
Commentary Magazine..
08 September '14..

Ireland is one of the most consistently anti-Israel countries in Europe. So it was interesting to read in Ireland’s Sunday Independent yesterday that Israeli troops were instrumental in saving the lives of Irish peacekeepers on the Golan Heights last week. Citing “senior sources,” the newspaper reported that after the peacekeepers were attacked by a Syrian rebel group, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, “Irish soldiers would have been killed or taken hostage by Islamist extremists if it wasn’t for the military intervention of the Israeli army … The Israeli assistance was described as ‘decisive’ in the success of the mission.”

Specifically, the Israel Defense Forces used its precise intelligence about the area to guide the troops to safety along a route that avoided Nusra fighters. Additionally, there were “unconfirmed reports that the Israelis directed fire at the Islamists to stop them from attacking the Filipino and Irish soldiers.”

There’s nothing surprising about the IDF’s intervention. After all, Israel has consistently intervened to save Syrian lives even though it’s formally at war with Syria, providing food and other humanitarian assistance to besieged Syrian villages and offering medical care to everyone from wounded fighters to mothers in labor. (Safed’s Rebecca Sieff Hospital delivered its seventh Syrian baby earlier this month.) So intervening to save the nationals of a country it’s not at war with is a no-brainer.

What is surprising, however, is what this says about Ireland, and by extension, about Europe as a whole. For here you have the difference between Israel and its enemies in the starkest form: on one hand, radical jihadists who sought to kill or kidnap Irish soldiers; on the other, a stable country that intervened to save their lives. The choice between the two would seem self-evident. But in fact, Ireland has consistently chosen the jihadists.

And the question is, what has Israel ever done to us?

...I know that all current facts and statistics show that Palestinians are treated far better by Israel than other Arab nations –where they are subjected to apartheid discrimination. And I'm aware that if I am to be accepted in polite, liberal society I should keep my mouth shut and just agree – Israel bad, Arabs good. But in all conscience I can't. I need to know why so many Irish politicians and groups are only "pro-Palestinian" "against Israel", as it were, and say, not Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan or the Arab League?

Carol Hunt..
Independent.ie..
04 August '13..

It's a tough one to figure out. So I'll put it out there and all answers on a postcard please.

The Tanaiste was off this week, doing sterling work in China. As I write I'm hearing reports that the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and Beijing International Airport (BCIA) are now "Sister Airports", UCD announced that they have agreed to establish a new international college with Shenzhen University – in addition to the other collaborations it has with other universities. Eamon Gilmore has stressed how Ireland and China want to strengthen their economic, trade and education ties and how "person to person" interaction between the two countries – such as exchange students – does much to foster better relations all round.

And who can argue with any of that?

Well, defenders of human rights can, one presumes. In an interview last week Gilmore looked decidedly uneasy as the elephant-in-the-room question was put to him regards doing business with China. An unelected regime, let us remember, which executes well over 2,000 of its own people every year and imprisons those who dare to speak against it. And let's not forget – oh, you already have? – China's occupation of Tibet where it's estimated over a million people have died as a result.

To be fair, Gilmore gave a cogent reply, saying that, "doing business with a country strengthens your ability to have dialogue on human rights". And while it's laughable to think China will take a blind bit of notice, the premise of Gilmore's answer has merit.

But see, I'm confused. If encouraging greater trade and academic ties and "person to person" interaction is so great for forging human rights dialogue, then why is Israel, seemingly alone of all countries in the world, singled out for no-holds-barred censure and boycott?

If academic and cultural communication is good, then why did the TUI become the first trade union involved with education and academia in the EU to adopt a resolution calling on its members to "cease all cultural and academic collaboration with Israel"?

'Doing business with a country strengthens your ability to have dialogue on human rights'

If Eamon Gilmore has repeatedly said he is against cultural boycotts (and he showed admirable support for the Israeli Film Festival last year in the face of thuggish intimidation), why does Labour Youth call Israel an "apartheid state" (an insult to all people who have suffered under one) and profess support for BDS (Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions)?

"Duh", says everyone I speak to, "it's because of Palestine!"

Really?

Dear Irish Teacher's Union - If a boycott is a boycott, go all the way.

Will the citizens of Ireland perhaps continue to benefit, without compunction or moral crisis, from the work of the so-called apartheid state's great scientists? I would like to help, or better yet to raise the moral bar that the Republic of Ireland has for us Israelis. I believe that a boycott is a boycott, and if you are already taking such a measure, go all the way.

Yaakov Ahimeir..
Israel Hayom..
11 April '13..

The Irish teachers' union, comprising 14,000 teachers and university instructors, declared an academic boycott on Israel this week. Sadly, given Ireland's attitude toward Israel, the decision does not come as a surprise. Implementing this boycott would mean the end of all academic and research cooperation with Israel, something which seems natural as Ireland is the most hostile nation to Israel in Europe.

The reasoning provided by the thousands of educators was that Israel is an "apartheid state." Still, we wonder: Will our Irish boycotters be satisfied with a written declaration, though one that is unequivocally harsh? Will the citizens of Ireland perhaps continue to benefit, without compunction or moral crisis, from the work of the so-called apartheid state's great scientists? I would like to help, or better yet to raise the moral bar that the Republic of Ireland has for us Israelis. I believe that a boycott is a boycott, and if you are already taking such a measure, go all the way.

Why don't the Irish complete their scientific boycott and add the products of Israeli medical research? I call on all doctors in Ireland not to recommend Copaxone, used to treat multiple sclerosis, to their patients, as it was developed at Weizmann Institute by Professor Michael Sela and Professor Ruth Arnon, renowned scientists of the apartheid state. We can't have such apartheid exports reaching sick beds in Ireland. It would be a moral travesty. Or maybe the Irish should stop using Exelon, which slows the progression of Alzheimer's disease. That medication was developed by Professor Martha Rezin from the Jerusalem School of Pharmacy.

Irish Teachers - What a lesson to their students: ignorance, bias, bigotry, narrow-mindedness, and anti-Semitism.

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure Points..
07 April 13..





The Teachers Union of Ireland voted last week to commence a full boycott of Israel.

At its Annual Congress on Thursday 4th April 2013, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) became the first academic union in Europe to endorse the Palestinian call for an academic boycott of Israel. The motion, which refers to Israel as an “apartheid state”, calls for “all members to cease all cultural and academic collaboration with Israel, including the exchange of scientists, students and academic personalities, as well as all cooperation in research programmes” was passed by a unanimous vote during today’s morning session.

Now, in the exchange of “scientists, students, and academic personalities” between Ireland and Israel it is perhaps not so difficult to guess who benefits. Israel is a world leader is science and high-tech, and any exchange must be entirely one-sided. So what the teachers have done is to cut themselves off from knowledge and advancement. Far worse, of course, they have deliberately tried to cut their students off.

Revisiting "That unwitting indecency"

The column recounted my encounter in Cahersiveen, a tiny Irish township, with pupils hoisting “Save Palestine” placards and soliciting funds for supposedly oppressed Palestinians – all on a school-day morning, as part of an organized school event. Their familiarity with Israel’s ongoing struggle to avoid annihilation can safely be judged as less than minimal.

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
08 February '13..

Ever since my column, “That unwitting indecency,” saw light two weeks ago, I’ve needed to occasionally consult the mirror to make sure I hadn’t morphed into a hideous monster that feeds on Irish tots.

The column recounted my encounter in Cahersiveen, a tiny Irish township, with pupils hoisting “Save Palestine” placards and soliciting funds for supposedly oppressed Palestinians – all on a school-day morning, as part of an organized school event. Their familiarity with Israel’s ongoing struggle to avoid annihilation can safely be judged as less than minimal.

That column created quite a stir throughout the Emerald Isle and generated discussions on national radio, as well as blaring newspaper headlines, like “Principal hits back at writer who said pupils anti-Jewish” (Irish Independent), “Kerry school denies anti-Semitism” (The Irish Times) and “School ‘shocked’ by anti- Semitic claims” (The Kerryman).

Apart from two later follow-ups which I initiated, the news reporting was astoundingly uniform. Everywhere the principal of Cahersiveen’s single secondary school was quoted at length and in full. He contended that the motif of my piece was to accuse his school of anti- Semitism. That it wasn’t so didn’t matter. Shooting the messenger proved expedient.

Simplistic one-sided news accounts of what was presented as my attack on virtually the entire Irish nation, bordered on the hysterical. The Kerryman ran the story – without my comment – on its front page under ludicrously dramatic banner headlines.

Cerebrally, we understand that arguments can be skewed, that they can be taken out of context to avoid dwelling on the real issue, that attention can be diverted to trivial tangents, that our intentions can be twisted out of all proportion by normally honorable people, perhaps to safeguard their apparent interests.

But then the talkbacks – overwhelmingly from Ireland and overwhelmingly pugnacious – started streaming in fast and furious. They were emailed in droves to The Jerusalem Post website, to my own website, to Irish papers and even to online forums like Politics.ie.

I highly doubt that most responders ever bothered reading my original. Had they done so, they would have noticed that that I referred to Cahersiveen’s residents as “essentially very decent folks.”

The point I was making, and from which my headline derived, was that “there’s sadly no remedy for that unwitting indecency of essentially very decent folks. Its parades as high-minded but is irrational.”

My tone wasn’t malicious, it was pained. My message was aimed at Israelis, not Irishmen. I argued that “our image has exasperatingly little to do with who we are,” which is why it’s time to quit our self-flagellating ways.

For most talkbackers, though, my perspective was irrelevant. Their preferred tactic was to posture as upright critics of Israel who are nastily maligned as anti- Semitic. It’s what I discussed in my January 30 editorial on Gerald Scarfe’s recent Sunday Times cartoon. I wrote: “Most anti-Semites nowadays are remarkably practiced in accompanying their invective with instant disclaimers – by now an expected part of the pattern.

Some may of course argue that Ireland is a special case

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
26 January '13..

I wish more Israelis were with me in outlying County Kerry, Ireland, just recently. There, in the tiny town of Cahersiveen, my doubting compatriots would have been reminded of what we face in the international community and why it has nothing much to do with how liberally we conduct ourselves, how many confidence- building concessions we make at the expense of our physical safety or how much we sacrifice of our rights to our historic homeland.

It’s all gallingly beside the point.

Our image has exasperatingly little to do with who we are. Distortions about us are blithely disseminated to the most susceptible and gullible members of society. Israel’s role as a scoundrel is made an axiomatic given, a premise for decent but distant folks, who know next to nothing (least of all Israel’s actual size) and couldn’t care less about the Mideast and its staggering complexities. But they are convinced that we are the bad guys.

That plays right into the hands of foreign leaders who are not, to resort to understatement, overly understanding of our cause. We were, for example, direly warned, via what appears like carefully timed hearsay, that US President Barack Obama doesn’t like our prime minister and holds Israel’s electorate responsible for the country’s isolation. We bring upon ourselves all the ill-will we encounter in the global arena.

Not to be outdone, Europe fully lives up to all the antagonism we have come to expect from the continent’s denizens. They were always highly adept, especially in the darkest epochs, at dressing up their intense bigotry in holier-than- thou sanctimony. It’s no different now, as warnings emanate from a plethora of EU capitals about an impending offensive to coerce Israel to capitulate to all existentially threatening Arab demands. Getting the Jewish state to sign its own death warrant will apparently buoy sagging spirits in the Euro zone.

Been there, heard that. It’s nothing new. Deep inside, most of us Israelis are inured to diplomatic discrimination, which is the latter-day genteel face of Judeophobia.

But some of us are bent on haughtily pooh-poohing anti-Jewish undercurrents, to say nothing of outrightly hostile motives. It matters little whether the likes of Tzipi Livni actually believe that there’s no thinly disguised prejudice against our vital interests and indeed against our very survival.

Primarily guilty of doing what diplomats are generally urged to avoid

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
17 December '12..

Israel’s embassy in Ireland got itself in hot water for an inflammatory posting on its Facebook page that embarrassed the Jewish state. The post stated that were Jesus and Mary alive today and walking around Bethlehem without security, they would be lynched as Jews by the Palestinians. When a controversy over the post ensued, it was soon deleted and an apology was issued. But the Dublin embassy is not getting off so easy. The New York Times quoted Haaretz’s diplomatic correspondent as reporting that this was just the latest though most egregious example of an aggressive stance taken by Israel’s envoys in Ireland. Apparently the embassy is guilty of speaking of Irish anti-Israel activists. It even had the temerity to re-post a satirical video about Irish media bias against Israel by the Latma comedy troupe.

All of this has brought down the opprobrium of Haaretz and the Times on the Dublin embassy. The Times even closed its piece on the subject by quoting a Palestinian response to the posting about Jesus and Mary that said that Christmas is freely celebrated in Bethlehem each year. But that remark, as well as much of the criticism of the supposedly undiplomatic behavior of the envoys, is off the mark. As much as it might have been wiser for anyone connected to the Israeli government to avoid any mention of the holy family or Christmas, their “offensive” post was primarily guilty of doing the one thing that diplomats are generally urged to avoid: telling the truth.

As the Times notes, Ireland has become a hotbed of anti-Israel incitement in the past few decades. Though Irish independence fighters and Jews struggling to free their ancient homeland once identified with each other due to their common British foe, the Irish Catholics now seem to identify more with the Palestinians while it is the Ulster Protestants who think of Israel as a role model for survival as a minority in a hostile environment. The Irish media is well known for its anti-Israel bias and agitation against the Jewish state that seems to be louder and nastier than in even neighboring Britain.

Perhaps that’s why Israel’s Dublin embassy has come to the reasonable conclusion that it needs to stop playing defense when it comes to correcting misperceptions about the Middle East conflict. In too many instances, Israeli diplomats and spokespersons have avoiding getting into scrapes but in the process failed to adequately defend their country at a time when a rising tide of anti-Semitism has distorted the debate about the Middle East conflict in Europe.

Ireland's NGO Funding - Carrying on a long tradition of anti-Israel bias

The Irish government is either oblivious to Trócaire’s extensive anti-peace activities, or knowingly carrying on a long tradition of anti-Israel bias.

Alex Ryvchin..
Op-Ed Contributor/JPost..
17 October '12..

This week, officials from Ireland are traveling to Israel for high-level talks. At the top of the agenda should be the damaging policies conducted by Trócaire, one of the major recipients of Irish taxpayer largesse.

Founded by the Bishops of Ireland, Trócaire is the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland and a major recipient of funds from Irish Aid with an annual budget of some ¤56 million.

In contrast to the humanitarian label, Trócaire is also a major contributor to and unwitting participant in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Amid the organization’s materials showing impoverished African children and grateful aid recipients from the third world are political attacks in the form of calls to boycott Israeli products from the West Bank. In a recent op-ed in the Irish Times, Trócaire’s executive director, Justin Kilcullen, urged Ireland to adopt a total ban on “illegal settlement goods” and to “push European counterparts for similar action.”

Beyond the central moral issue raised by an aid organization interceding politically in a complex and multifaceted conflict, Trócaire’s role as a key enabler of anti-Israel campaigns raises important questions. If boycotts are a legitimate means of influencing the policies of foreign governments, why is there no call to boycott Syria following the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Assad’s bloody war against his own people? And why is there no Trocaire-led boycott of China, or of many other countries plagued by violent attacks and terrorism. In fact, why is Israel the only country that Trócaire targets in the entire Middle East?

Nicky Larkin - How I became an Irish Zionist

Nicky Larkin..
Ottawa Citizen..
18 June '12..

Summer 2012 — An Israeli flag proudly flies outside the front of a Dublin city centre pub. An insignificant event perhaps in other parts of the world — but not in Ireland. Six months previously Dublin city council allowed a day-long enactment of mock executions of “Israelis” by “Palestinians” on our main shopping thoroughfare, organized by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Being anti-Israel has somehow become part of our Irish national identity — the same way we are supposed to resent the English.

I was no different. My interest in the Israeli-Arab conflict had been sparked by Operation Cast Lead. I posed in the striped scarf of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation for an art show catalogue, in a gesture of solidarity. While I never had any notions of “Throwing The Jew Down The Well,” as Borat might have it, I had definite opinions on Israeli foreign policy. The Irish papers were full of stories of Israeli aggression every day that summer — between flotillas and bombings it didn’t look good. You can’t polish a turd.

But I wanted to go and see for myself. I wanted to see just how nasty these Israeli’s actually were. I wanted proof that I was right.

Myers - The war on Israel, Irish-style

Kevin Myers..
Israel Opinion/Ynet..
11 May '12..

The most serious event of the past week wasn’t related to Prime Time’s libel of Father Kevin Reynolds, and it wasn’t what Cardinal Sean Brady did or didn’t do nearly 40 years ago. Far more serious than either for the health of this Republic – though connected to both by a sanctimonious tissue of lethal intolerance – was the intimidation of the band Dervish into cancelling a tour of Israel.

Dervish’s website was hit by venomous abuse from anti-Israeli activists, on the instructions of the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Group. Every bit as sinister as this has been the silence from politicians and “civil liberties groups”: the exception, of course, being Alan Shatter, who is Jewish. It was as if the intellectual thugs of the IPSG were trying to vindicate my recent suggestion that the largest threat to personal freedom these days comes not from government, but from single-interest pressure groups.

Tactics and techniques that would be called fascist by liberals if used against them were at the heart of the campaign against Dervish. For in the left-liberal culture, certain subjects are beyond the usual courtesies of a tolerant civilization, and instead may be subjected to outright bigotry and bullying. The legitimate targets for this salon-terrorism are the Catholic Church, American Republicans, and of course Israel.

Larkin - Israel is a refuge, but a refuge under siege

Nicky Larkin..
Independent.ie..
11 March '12..





I used to hate Israel. I used to think the Left was always right. Not any more. Now I loathe Palestinian terrorists. Now I see why Israel has to be hard. Now I see the Left can be Right -- as in right-wing. So why did I change my mind so completely?

Strangely, it began with my anger at Israel's incursion into Gaza in December 2008 which left over 1,200 Palestinians dead, compared to only 13 Israelis. I was so angered by this massacre I posed in the striped scarf of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation for an art show catalogue.

Shortly after posing in that PLO scarf, I applied for funding from the Irish Arts Council to make a film in Israel and Palestine. I wanted to talk to these soldiers, to challenge their actions -- and challenge the Israeli citizens who supported them.

I spent seven weeks in the area, dividing my time evenly between Israel and the West Bank. I started in Israel. The locals were suspicious. We were Irish -- from a country which is one of Israel's chief critics -- and we were filmmakers. We were the enemy.

Daphne Anson - The Irish Eyes Not Smiling On Israel

Those of Old Anti-American Warhorse Michael D. Higgins

Daphne Anson
31 October '11

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/10/irish-eyes-not-smiling-on-israel-those.html

Michael D. Higgins, veteran Irish leftist politician and poet, who's now, unexpectedly, President of Eire, could never be mistaken for a warm supporter Israel. (Be sure to look here, which is where I obtained this photo.) Known for his vehement criticism of the United States as well as of Israel, he first visited Gaza in the 1980s, and in 2004 paid a fulsome tribute to Arafat following the latter's death, attending a candlelit vigil organised by the Ireland-Palestine Soldarity Campaign. He objects to the description of Hamas as a "terrorist" organisation, and in 2007 shared a platform with Hezbollah.

Although his office is largely a ceremonial one, lacking real powers, he's obviously well-positioned to influence public opinion - in a country whose Palestine Solidarity movement is widely considered to be the most virulently anti-Israel in the entire British Isles.

The following speech that he delivered in the Irish Parliament in June 2010, in which he condemns Operation Cast Lead, asserts that he's "sick and tired" of hearing that supplies are getting into Gaza, abhors the proscription of Hamas, and rails against Israel's attack on the Mavi Marmara, captures something of his attitude - albeit in a deceptively low-key way. He is good enough (unlike some of Israel's leftist detractors) to denounce rocket attacks on Sderot - but his voice becomes unmistakably ever more indignant against Israel as the speech proceeds.



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