Regular readers of this blog will know that we have repeatedly argued against the usefulness of the Northern Ireland analogy applied to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Nevertheless, like the corpse of a drowned dog, it keeps bobbing to the surface again and again. The latest example is by Ali Abunimah in the New York Times. With a deep sigh and a heavy step I’ll now proceed to take it apart.
Archive for the 'Ireland' Category
Michael Collins isn’t a name that will mean much to many readers of this blog. For present purposes it will suffice to say that he was a key figure in the War of Independence that led to Ireland winning its freedom from Great Britain. He was shot dead in an ambush during the Irish Civil War 88 years ago today.
Continue reading ‘Michael Collins, 88 Years and Burying the Past’
My latest article on the Huffington Post examines the extraordinary and shocking case of Cliona Campbell, a young woman being victimized by anti-Zionist thugs.
By way of Haaretz I learn of a pledge by 150 Irish artists not to perform in Israel. Most of the signatories are nonentities whose undertaking not to perform in Israel is about as meaningful as one by me not to run for president of Azerbaijan would be.
The publication of the Saville Report into an atrocity carried out by the British Army in Northern Ireland in 1972 has tempted Andrew Sullivan to write a post of remarkable stupidity.
Fintan O’Toole is a prominent Irish writer, journalist and theater critic. If you’re Irish and have a comfortable station in life but consider yourself progressive in your politics you probably have a very positive view of O’Toole and have incorporated a good deal of his worldview into your own.
Continue reading ‘Israel = Nazi Germany Says Top Irish Writer’
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The Guardian here makes great play of the fact that the autopsies carried out on those killed on the Mavi Marmara show that five of them received gunshot wounds to the head and one was shot between the eyes. The piece quotes a pro-Palestinian activist in the UK as accusing the Israeli commandos having had a “shoot-to-kill” policy.
The Celtic Tiger is dead and buried and Ireland is going through an economic crisis unprecedented in seriousness in the history of the state. The banks are all bankrupt, unemployment and the budget deficit are soaring and emigration is starting to rise again. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions held a special one-day conference to address these issues today.
Writing about the recent murders committed by terrorist groups in Northern Ireland, Terry Glavin says that,
… nationalist support for the armed campaign waged by the Irish Republican Army between 1969 and 1994 was grounded in the demand for British withdrawal from Ulster, and for Irish self-determination.
Here’s a letter in the Irish Independent signed by six US labor leaders - including Jack Ahern, President of the AFL-CIO in New York - challenging the campaign by some in the Irish labor movement to boycott Israel.
Continue reading ‘American Labor Leaders Take Stand Against Boycott’
A number of active and retired politicians who style themselves as “former peace negotiators” have signed a letter to The Times calling for negotiations with Hamas.
Continue reading ‘Negotiating With Hamas and Other Illusions’
Patricia McKeown, the President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, has been “quoting” Nelson Mandela. “Nelson Mandela described this,” she said, referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “as the most important problem on this planet.”
We’ve recently been treated to the spectacle of Aengus Ó Snodaigh, a member of the lower house of Ireland’s parliament, comparing both Alan Shatter, the only Jewish member of the same legislature, and Zion Evrony, the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
Continue reading ‘Gaza: Jewish Legislator in Ireland Compared to Goebbels’
Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Féin, the political wing of the now defunct Irish Republican Army (IRA,) says
…the international community has to recognise the democratic mandate of Hamas and open dialogue with them.
