Kevin Myers muses ......
What is it about Israel that prompts such a widespread departure from common sense, reason and moral reality? As another insane flotilla prepares to butt across the Mediterranean bringing "aid" to the "beleaguered" people of Gaza, in its midst travelling the MV Saoirse, does it never occur to all the hysterical anti-Israeli activists in Ireland that this is like worrying about the steaks being burnt on the barbecue, as a forest fire sweeps towards your back garden?
I took part in a discussion about the Middle East last weekend at the Dalkey Books Festival. It was surreal. Not merely was I the only pro-Israeli person in the panel of four, but the chairwoman of the session, Olivia O'Leary, also felt obliged to throw in her three-ha'pence worth.
Israeli "settlers" on the "West Bank" were on stolen land, she sniffed. Palestinians in their refugee camps had title deeds to the ancient properties. The UN had repeatedly condemned Israel. Brian Keenan, who was held hostage by Arab terrorists for four years, then detailed Israeli human-rights abuses, to loud cheers.
Israel ~ and its sole defender on the panel (is mise) ~ were then roundly attacked by members of the audience. But what was most striking about the audience's contributions was the raw emotion ..... they seemed to loathe Israel!!
But how can anyone possibly think that Gaza is the primary centre of injustice in the Middle East? According to Mathilde Redmatn, deputy director of the International Red Cross in Gaza, there is in fact no humanitarian crisis there at all. But by G-d, there is one in Syria, where possibly thousands have died in the past month.
However, I notice that none of the Irish do-gooders are sending an aid-ship to Latakia. Why? Is it because they know that the Syrians do not deal with dissenting vessels by lads with truncheons abseiling down from helicopters, but with belt-fed machine guns, right from the start?
What about a humanitarian ship to Libya? Surely no-one on the MV Saoirse could possibly maintain that life under Gaddafi qualified it as a civilised state. Not merely did it murder opponents by the bucketload at home and abroad, it kept the IRA campaign going for 20 years, and it also ~ a minor point, this, I know ~ brought down the Pan Am flight at Lockerbie. Yet no Irish boat to Libya. Only the other way round.
And then there's Iraq. Throughout the decades of Saddam Hussein, whose regime caused the deaths of well over a million people, there wasn't a breath of liberal protest against him. Gassing the Kurds? Not a whimper. Invading Kuwait? Not one single angry placard-bearing European liberal outside an Iraqi embassy.
Destroying the drainage systems of the Marsh Arabs? Silence. Manipulating UN oil-for-food programme so that thousands died? Nothing.
Next, Saudi Arabia, whose revolting practices cannot be called Medieval without doing a grave injustice to the Middle Ages. It is led by savages who have studiously turned their backs on knowledge ~ even as they sip their Krug and their Bollinger in their €100m apartments in Belgravia. They behead and behand, they torture and they mutilate, and they have spent billions on their foul madrasahs teaching young Muslims right across the world to hate us kaffirs. But what demonstrations are there outside Saudi embassies? What flotillas to defend the human rights of the millions of immigrant serfs, who toil without any rights in Saudi homes and in the oil industry?
There isn't a single Arab country, not one, with the constitutional protection that Israel confers on all its citizens, regardless of religion or ethnicity or sexual orientation. By any decent measure, it is simply not possible to gaze upon the entire region, reaching from Casablanca to Yemen, and then to point indignantly and say ~ "Ah yes, Gaza: that's where the one great injustice lies."
The last 'aid flotilla' to Gaza carried a large number of Islamists who wanted to provoke and aided by some quite astounding Israeli stupidity, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
Now another convoy is under way, and again with an utterly disingenuous plan to bring "assistance" to the "beleaguered Gazans", some of who, funnily enough, can now cross into Egypt any time they like, and buy their explosives and their Kalashnikovs in the local arms-bazaar.
And as for human-rights abuses .... why, nothing that Israel has done in the 63 years of its existence can possibly compare with the mass-murders of Fatah members by Hamas firing-squads over the past five years.
The colossal western intellectual dissonance between evidence and perception on the subject of Israel at this point in history can perhaps only be explained by anthropologists.
This dissonance is perhaps at its most acute in Ireland, where no empirical proof seems capable of changing people's minds. Israel, just about the only country in the entire region where Arabs are not rising up against their rulers, is also the only country that the Irish chattering classes unite in condemning. Rather pathetic, really.
This article is NOT my work. It was written by Kevin Myers for 'The Irish Independant' Newspaper. Most of my Readers are not Irish & It is too Damn good not to reproduce!!!!I took part in a discussion about the Middle East last weekend at the Dalkey Books Festival. It was surreal. Not merely was I the only pro-Israeli person in the panel of four, but the chairwoman of the session, Olivia O'Leary, also felt obliged to throw in her three-ha'pence worth.
Israeli "settlers" on the "West Bank" were on stolen land, she sniffed. Palestinians in their refugee camps had title deeds to the ancient properties. The UN had repeatedly condemned Israel. Brian Keenan, who was held hostage by Arab terrorists for four years, then detailed Israeli human-rights abuses, to loud cheers.
Israel ~ and its sole defender on the panel (is mise) ~ were then roundly attacked by members of the audience. But what was most striking about the audience's contributions was the raw emotion ..... they seemed to loathe Israel!!
But how can anyone possibly think that Gaza is the primary centre of injustice in the Middle East? According to Mathilde Redmatn, deputy director of the International Red Cross in Gaza, there is in fact no humanitarian crisis there at all. But by G-d, there is one in Syria, where possibly thousands have died in the past month.
However, I notice that none of the Irish do-gooders are sending an aid-ship to Latakia. Why? Is it because they know that the Syrians do not deal with dissenting vessels by lads with truncheons abseiling down from helicopters, but with belt-fed machine guns, right from the start?
What about a humanitarian ship to Libya? Surely no-one on the MV Saoirse could possibly maintain that life under Gaddafi qualified it as a civilised state. Not merely did it murder opponents by the bucketload at home and abroad, it kept the IRA campaign going for 20 years, and it also ~ a minor point, this, I know ~ brought down the Pan Am flight at Lockerbie. Yet no Irish boat to Libya. Only the other way round.
And then there's Iraq. Throughout the decades of Saddam Hussein, whose regime caused the deaths of well over a million people, there wasn't a breath of liberal protest against him. Gassing the Kurds? Not a whimper. Invading Kuwait? Not one single angry placard-bearing European liberal outside an Iraqi embassy.
Destroying the drainage systems of the Marsh Arabs? Silence. Manipulating UN oil-for-food programme so that thousands died? Nothing.
Next, Saudi Arabia, whose revolting practices cannot be called Medieval without doing a grave injustice to the Middle Ages. It is led by savages who have studiously turned their backs on knowledge ~ even as they sip their Krug and their Bollinger in their €100m apartments in Belgravia. They behead and behand, they torture and they mutilate, and they have spent billions on their foul madrasahs teaching young Muslims right across the world to hate us kaffirs. But what demonstrations are there outside Saudi embassies? What flotillas to defend the human rights of the millions of immigrant serfs, who toil without any rights in Saudi homes and in the oil industry?
There isn't a single Arab country, not one, with the constitutional protection that Israel confers on all its citizens, regardless of religion or ethnicity or sexual orientation. By any decent measure, it is simply not possible to gaze upon the entire region, reaching from Casablanca to Yemen, and then to point indignantly and say ~ "Ah yes, Gaza: that's where the one great injustice lies."
The last 'aid flotilla' to Gaza carried a large number of Islamists who wanted to provoke and aided by some quite astounding Israeli stupidity, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
Now another convoy is under way, and again with an utterly disingenuous plan to bring "assistance" to the "beleaguered Gazans", some of who, funnily enough, can now cross into Egypt any time they like, and buy their explosives and their Kalashnikovs in the local arms-bazaar.
And as for human-rights abuses .... why, nothing that Israel has done in the 63 years of its existence can possibly compare with the mass-murders of Fatah members by Hamas firing-squads over the past five years.
The colossal western intellectual dissonance between evidence and perception on the subject of Israel at this point in history can perhaps only be explained by anthropologists.
This dissonance is perhaps at its most acute in Ireland, where no empirical proof seems capable of changing people's minds. Israel, just about the only country in the entire region where Arabs are not rising up against their rulers, is also the only country that the Irish chattering classes unite in condemning. Rather pathetic, really.
(All emphases mine!)
It makes me soooo MAD that the inference is that Israeli's & Jews are NOT HUMAN!!!!
ReplyDeleteOne thing for sure is that the Gaza flotilla radicals are lying through their teeth.
Weeping crocodile tears for the weak and the oppressed they head of for Gaza to relieve the suffering of a increasingly middle class society who have just opened their second super Shopping Mall in Gaza City. Meanwhile, they have turned their backs on the Egyptians, Libyans, Syrians, Tunisians, Yemenites, who are being slaughtered by their leaders in favour of a terrorist regime that also tramples on the rights of its people in Gaza. All the above Governments are limbs of the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is imperative that Israel show the funders and organisers of future flotillas that their provocations will be costly. Israel should impound all equipment used in this illegal act against the Jewish state. The IDF Should shoot 3 Warning shots accross the bow of each Ship, then Sink them. This is International Law when dealing with an act of Aggression at Sea.
SINK THE SHIPS .... STOP THE FLOTILLA!!!!!
THE FLOTILLA PARTICIPANTS ARE COMMITTING AN ILLEGAL ACT.
ReplyDeleteThe blockade of Gaza is legal. International law says so. After suicide bombers, tens of thousands of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas, the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, etc. Israel has the legal right to protect itself. The supervised flow of goods into Gaza is one legal way of ensuring its self defence. The flotilla mob want to destroy that defence. They embark on their flotilla campaign knowing that it is a criminal act. They try to dress it up with the liberal language of humanity but their malevolent intent is to cause harm to Israelis & delegitimise the Jewish State. The Only Jewish State. It is an act of Provocation & Aggression. There are proscriptions in International Law for this .... SINK the SHIPS!!
My friend Amanda posted this PERFECT comment on FB .... Go raibh mile mhaith agat, a Stoir!!
ReplyDelete"I’m going to come at this Flotilla from a whole different perspective from the usual arguments.
As a Irish citizen, thinking selfishly for my country’s best interests.
Apologies to non-Irish readers.
Kevin Myers mentions the “chattering classe...s” perhaps they need to cop on and reflect on the state the country is in.
Two of the country’s sectors remaining in relative good health are the IT & pharmaceutical industries.
Both of these are linked heavily with a little democratic & UN recognised state in the middle East known as Israel.
This is the state in the region which we should be forging alliances and building good relationships.
Not calling for boycotts – Do the chatterers realise how many of the multi-national jobs could be lost?
Despite being officially told
"I have made it clear that I cannot advise any Irish national to participate in a venture which potentially brings them into harm's way through seeking to break a naval blockade," – Eamon Gilmore
These do-gooder muppets will go ahead throwing themselves in harms way and inevitably cry to the Government to come bail them out.
And unfortunately the government is obliged to look for it’s citizens no matter how stupid & reckless they are.
The lefties probably already have their speeches of outrage written.
Lily livered politicians will undoubtedly bow to this pressure.
The inevitable spat doing untold damage to relations between 2 nations which should be friends.
All for a group whose leaders would like to see the likes of me dead.
That makes me angry.
Is my job sailing away with the lefties & hippies on that flotilla?
Is that what they are carrying since they have no “aid” on board.
Then again they probably wouldn’t recognise a job."