Irish4Israel

geoffff

Wanted: A direct flight route between Dublin and Tel Aviv 

Some good news to refresh and inspire. The group Irish4Israel formed not so long ago is alive and thriving. 

From this side of the world it is easy to conclude that with breathtaking hypocrisy and a spiteful contempt for history the Republic of Ireland had decided to become among the most hostile states in Europe to Israel and had slipped effortlessly into the camp that ultimately proclaims that it is all Israel's and the Jews' fault for just being. 

Let's face it the list is long and ugly and has a fair history. Ireland was neutral in the war against the Nazis and you had a better chance of finding asylum in Ireland after the war if you were a Nazi criminal on the run than a Holocaust survivor.  Irish journalists and commentators refer to Israel as a "cancer" and splash around words like "genocide",  "ethnic cleansing", "imperialist endeavour" and "illegal" with a frequency unmatched in the English language pretty much anywhere outside of the Guardian. You can only imagine what they are saying in Gaelic. The Irish  "pro-Palestine" lobby is among the most vocal and least troubled by antisemitic canards. 

Mary Robinson was  the drive behind making Israel the sole target of UN "human rights" activism. She presided over the 2001 UN Conference on Racism which melted into an Orwellian moment of pure hate at the very image of the world's only Jewish state.  There's been no improvement in the attitude. Years later she still dismisses criticism of this sickening moral inversion as "bullying by certain elements of the Jewish community".
  .   
Have a look at this tremendous recently formed group. What a great page. People informed about the truth and who actually give a damn. What a great bunch. They deserve support. Great to see they are getting some.

Now I Remember Why I Like The Irish 


Here's a recent piece on the pluck of these Irish

Irish4Israel was founded in 2010 by Barry Williams, a non-Jewish student at University College Cork. It uses Facebook as its main platform for communication and organizing. Williams said the group has 2,500 members on Facebook, with most of them under the age of 35.

The group focuses on challenging anti-Israel bias in the media, said Williams, 26. Members are encouraged to sign petitions and write or call media outlets and politicians to protest anti-Israel coverage and rhetoric.

“We also stage Israel ‘buycotts,’ when we encourage people to go out and buy Israel-made products, and we advocate against cultural boycotts against Israeli artists,” Williams said.

...

BlueStar is designing large posters that will be printed in Ireland and displayed on the side of seven bus shelters for two weeks starting on April 22.

The posters — modified versions of previously used BlueStar posters — show young women enjoying everyday life in Tel Aviv (shopping, walking in the street, eating at a café).

“To show that Israel is not an apartheid state, you don’t reiterate the negative charges,” Carey explained. “You focus on the positives. You show happy, engaging women walking down the street and a warm, open invitation to visit Israel.”

The “invitation” to Israel is an actual one, with the posters announcing a “win a free trip to Israel” contest. Entrants are instructed to write on Irish4Israel’s Facebook page why they want to visit Israel. The Israeli Embassy will help judge the entries, and BlueStar is helping to raise the funds to sponsor the trip.

[end]

Read it all. Note at the end the ambivalence, even trepidation of Ireland's tiny Jewish community about the campaign. Maybe the truth will whip up more hatred. That is common enough in small Jewish communities and not so small.

Barry Williams does not agree.

“The [Irish] Jewish community does like to keep quiet about Zionism, but Irish4Israel says you can’t keep quiet,” he said. “Ireland is not anti-Israel, but there is a loud and vocal minority that is. We need to challenge those lies and let people know there are two sides to the story.”

Good for him

Good for Irish4Israel

You can see the character of the people they must contend with from their Facebook page

And they have perhaps the best toxin antidote map to counter the cynically dishonest  "four map" slander I've seen. Check it out at their link.

hat tip

Shirlee