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Ireland's Hostility towards Israel

(Jerusalem Post) Amotz Asa-El - Israeli underground leader and future prime minister Yitzhak Shamir used the alias "Michael," borrowed from the Irish rebel Michael Collins. The Jewish and Irish liberation movements had a common British enemy and initially respected each other. Collins at one point hid among Dublin's Jews disguised as an Orthodox Jew. An Irish Jew, Robert Briscoe, was the IRA's arms purchaser and served as an adviser to Menachem Begin. But by the mid-1950s, as Britain and Israel became allies, Ireland became Israel's foe. The IRA helped Palestinian terrorism, and Ireland delayed its exchange of ambassadors with Israel until 1993. By far the most anti-Israel country in Europe, Dublin actively incites other European countries against Israel, Israeli diplomats report. Last week, Ireland's women's basketball team, in a formal match, refused to shake the Israeli team's hands. A few things have to be said now by Jerusalem to Dublin. First, we Israelis have nothing to apologize for. Palestinians are getting killed because they started a war and the Israelis are fighting back. Your Palestinian heroes deliberately hide among and under their population, along with the arms they clearly plan to use to massacre us. Second, you are not the freedom fighters your ancestors were. Not one of you ever populated a battlefield, dodged a bullet, attended a fallen soldier's funeral, or suffered war's grief. We have, and still do. There is nothing you can teach us about war's morbidities or about sacrificing for peace. We Jews remember that during World War II Ireland declared neutrality, refusing to join the Allies. Some Irish heroes, in fact, actively collaborated with Hitler, most notably IRA chief of staff Sean Russell, who spent three months training in Nazi Germany. The writer is a fellow of the Hartman Institute.
2024-02-18 00:00:00
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