Pluck of the Irish helps get pro-Israel message across

I am Jewish and Irish and I think this is a brilliant idea. It is outdated thinking to keep your head down and don’t draw attention to Israel or Anti-Semitism. I always say ‘look where that got the German Jews?’ I’m delighted that there will be billboards in Cork with this message going out. Barry Williams is a legend. I have to admit that I am in a minority in the Irish Jewish community. I firmly believe in sticking my head above the parapet.

There is indeed two sides to the story and the only problem is when you question Irish4Israel on items on their twitter feed they block you! No discussion of the other side is permitted. As a Corkonian I will be airing my opposition to these posters. I’m so happy American organisations are sending their fundraising monies to my country to fight for Israeli image issues and also pro-life issues. How about California deals with the attempted suppression of student activism on the campuses of the University of California? This suppression of free speech is far more worthy of your funds than advertising Israel on bus shelters in my city of Cork.

As an Irishman who believes Israel gets a bad press in Ireland, I support this advertising campaign to promote Israel as a wonderful country to visit and be discovered.
I have visited Israel a number of times and can assure anyone that Israel is a truly unique and beautiful destination. It’s diversified, multicoloured and truly has a lot to see and do for all visitors.
Ireland for many years suffered in it’s tourism due to terrorist attacks that made all the wrong headlines, Israel has this issue now, but the reality on the ground is so very different. Well done to Irish 4 Israel, I for one lend my full support for standing up for Israel in Ireland.

To snappyj:
My great-aunt researched our family history, to find that we had left Ireland when, as she put it, the Irish became obnoxious. I see sanctimony is alive and well, trying to divert attention from sins of omission and commission. I do not regret that we left Ireland (actually Six Counties) around 1700; nothing has changed.

Well now Dave, to be fair it does depend on the month in 1700 that your family left. Post July 1700 you’re right - nothing changed. Pre May 1700 - massive changes. It stopped raining in June and the amount of work we got done. You wouldn’t recognise the place. 17 acres of fields alone were reclaimed from rocks in the six counties. Did your family know Giles McCreevey? He lived there in 2 Peasant Cottages, The Less Muddy Road, 6 Counties, Ireland. His dog died there in 1811. Sad day.

Yup. Nothing has changed here post July 1700.

We were Ulstermen, having left Scotland to get away from the English pacifications. To the Catholic Irish, we were, in spite of being oppressed by the English as Celts, Protestants. We were therefore traitors to “The Cause”. So, we left Armagh, to arrive in the colonies in time to serve General Washington.
Charles Parnell had a Jewish mother and Robert Bolt was Jewish, but those fighters for Irish independence were only Irish; you would think they were Jewish partisans in aftermath of World War II, Poles, Russians, anything but Jews.
As if to validate their sense of eternal victimhood, the IRA trained the PLO (n return for arms) and the Irish government backed the Arab League (in spite of the history of Arab slave raids). Ask Mary Robinson about the Arab response to her statement at the Durban fiasco.

Dave, good response to Mr. Peters.
On a more serious note - should an Irish person write in such an ‘obnoxious’ tone about Jewish Israelis they would be described as ‘Anti-Semitic’, maybe even a Nazi. They would probably also have the likes of Irish4Israel bearing down on them, all in the name of free speech, of course.
At least Mr. Peters ancestors left Ireland voluntarily, unlike the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who were ethnically cleansed from Palestine.
‘Entrants are instructed to write on Irish4Israel’s Facebook page why they want to visit Israel’
To visit the Unrecognized Villages would be just one answer.
“The [Irish] Jewish community does like to keep quiet about Zionism,”
For good reason, it seems. Can’t let the cat out of the bag. For example, how can the remains of destroyed Palestinian Villages be explained? Cover them with pine trees imported from Europe? That’s already been done.
The planters overlooked one snag though. The cactus plants which Palestinians used to demarcate land and grazing boundaries could not be destroyed, despite all attempts to do so, leaving behind evidence of the crime, and a constant reminder of the original inhabitants.
Sabra – what an irony.

‘the Irish government backed the Arab League (in spite of the history of Arab slave raids).’
So the Irish government should not support out of principle and agreement, but disagree out of spite because of actions taken hundreds of years earlier.
That sounds like blaming people for the sins of their ancestors. This is what Anti-Semites do - blame Jews for their alleged involvement in the killing of Jesus. By this logic, black African states should stand against Israel because of Jewish involvement in the Trans Atlantic black African slave trade.
What an irony.
One can only imagine the reaction.
Mr. Peters writes of the IRA: ‘As if to validate their sense of eternal victimhood’.
Many people have accused Israeli and non-Israeli Jews of similar ‘eternal victimhood’. Indeed, Mr. Peters own writing is dripping with victimhood.

Irish4Israel is not obligated to provide yet another forum for your ugly, Israel-bashing sentiments. If anyone is interested in hearing more of the same old Arab propaganda line, they can always consult the BBC, the New York Times, any number of Irish dailies, and, apparently, the Comments section of the Jweekly.
And while we’re on the subject - since you insult us with an accusation of ethnic cleansing, would you care to comment on the 1948 expulsion of the Jews from the centuries-old Jewish quarter of Jerusalem? How about the use of our synagogues as public toillettes and goat pens? I’m sure you would want to be fair and consider “both sides of the story,” now wouldn’t you.

My sincerest apologies to the Mizrahi community, I neglected to include mention of the more than 850,000 Jews forcibly expelled from Arab countries with their property stolen. These people were never asked whether they were Zionists or not, so it seems there was a bit of racism involved here, wouldn’t you agree?
One other point I’m curious about:  when you refer to “suppression of student activism on the campuses of the University of California,” would these be the same students who violently disrupt Israeli cultural and academic events, denying to others the freedom of expression they are claiming for themselves? In Ireland and the UK, invited speakers have even been forced to flee for their lives. i guess that doesn’t bother you at all, huh?

We are (generally)anti-zionist because we know what happens when you send in settlers of one religion, backed by an army, into an area populated by people of another religions.  At the time you get bloodshed and massive injustice (West Bank today), later you get lingering sectarian hatred and violence that lasts hundreds of years (Northern Ireland today).

Unlike many people posting here, I’ve been into the Arab areas of the West Bank, and seen colonialism in action.  There is a word for it when you take people’s land from them based on race.

Look up both histories on wiki, don’t just take the word of your peer group/race/sect.

Liam tries to deflect the historic Anti-Semitism of the Catholic Irish, by drawing a false analogy in Northern Ireland.
His ignorance of Irish history includes the invasion of Scotland by the Irish Scoti tribe (guess where Scotland gets its name), remnants of which are the highland clans. When the oppressed Celtic lowlanders moved to Northern Ireland, they were deemed unacceptable because their Protestantism was unforgivable.
If the Irish weren’t anti-Semitic, then why did they refuse to shelter more than a minimal number of Jews fleeing Europe, or maybe it was because they were so pro-Nazi in their World War II ‘neutrality’.
Ignorance and bigotry, such a traditional combination.

Dave’s grave insult is the usual kneejerk response to criticism of Israel. 

How about these “anti-semites”, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, and Jews for Justice?  Or are they just self-hating?

http://www.btselem.org/

http://jfjfp.com/