Hamas strike on Israel - Threadbans in op - mod warning in OP updated 19/10/23

So you honestly think that people in Ireland having empathy with the people of Gaza is down to them hating Jews? Honestly? What issue would Irish people have against the Jews exactly? I am atheist myself and consider All organised religions damaging in many way. They are just people to me. On both sides. Play the anti-Jew card all you want but I think that's stupid. It's just an excuse.

Dr Valera was a FF idiot by the way. I blame him for letting the Roman church run riot in Ireland for decades.

I voted FG for 20 years and I admired Alan Shatter as a politician and speaker. However I lost all faith in him when he refused to provide a breath test at a Garda checkpoint. The Justice minister! That was it for me. I lost a family member to a drink driver once so I am "biased". Does that make me anti-Jew because I have no time for Shatter anymore?

I have never come across anti-Semitism in Ireland. I figured people were too busy hating the Protestants!

Gaza has a border with Egypt, that Egypt and Hamas control.

Israel left Gaza in 2005 and instead of trying to build a new life for its people, they directed all resources to kill Jews and Israelis with this policy coming home to roost.

Did you read the links I sent you? Israel did not leave Gaza in 2005. How many times...

Overplaying and underplaying the numbers here, but as I wrote, the Arabs were never to agree to ANY plan to partition Palestine.

The UN voted and accepted this plan and in return, the Arabs launched a war to wipe out the Jews.

Those talking about respecting International Law should concede that was against International Law, not 'whatabout' it.

Well, we in Ireland think 'our' nationalism was fluffy and nice.

But you made my point for me.

Arab or Palestinian nationalism was not fluffy or nice in the general sense. It was reactionary, populist, right-wing, and hugely anti-Semitic.

I got my Math from the article itself, which is derived from the Census.

FT reporting that rocket launchers were found in Gaza in a mosque and in a children's scout clubhouse. Not only does Hamas use Palestinian children as human shields but they store high explosives in kids clubs.

How many more kids have to die on this one? If Ireland is on one side (with Hamas and Iran and co.) and all the other countries in Europe are on the other side, maybe you backed the wrong horse on this one? Ireland is not on the right side of history on this one. This is worse than the time we sent a letter of condolence for Hitler. Shameful.

And if the RPGs do explode and kill the kids, just say Israel did it. Sure, half the people in Ireland will believe it anyway. We have been conned.

So he didn't kill him, nor is there any proof that he was involved in the assassination. Israel is a liberal democracy, where politicians can rightly or wrongly criticise the government of the day. Are you saying Rabin was beyond reproach here?

I say this as someone who doesn't like Bibi at all by the way.

However, if words make one complicit to murder, can we say parties like the PBP are complicit in the murder of 1,400 Israelis on October 7th?

It's your assessment and it's based in racist ideology. The term banana republic is rooted in white supremacy and used to demonise those of the global south and the victims of colonialism. You're one step away from the hooligans at a football match waving inflatable bananas at black players. To call all the countries around the globe who don't agree with the major colonisers banana republics and to say nobody from these regions has a right to an opinion is a pretty awful take.

We all know the conflict didn't start in 1967.

Anything to say about the attack by the Arabs in 1948?

Em, yes they did.

Both sides were mean, that's what happens in civil wars. There was a lot of unrest already in the 1920s and 1930s, beginnings of the civil war in the British Mandate. Saying that only the Jews were mean but the Palestinians were good shephards herding goats is exactly the root of these whole myth many people peddle on this forum and one of the reasons why Ireland is such an extreme pro-Palestinian outlier in the EU.

By the way, here's the map of the Middle East as of 1920. The region of "Palestine" (highlighted in green) totally surrounded by large and populous Arab (proto-)states Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia including Arabs within Palestine itself. If anyne was the underdog in this conflict it was the Jews. And they won, the Arabs lost (and not once).

I agree, but do you now take on board that Anti-Semitism is a core part of this conflict, that no matter how nice the Israelis are to Arabs, there will exist groups like Hamas who want to kill them all?

Surely you understand that?

And they could well be carrying Hamas fighters. They consider injured people non-combatant, and under the Geneva Conventions as such they are protected and to be helped. They don't ask the people being loaded into their vehicles what their politics are or how they got their injuries.

OK, so agree with my point then.