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

Where are you getting the notion that Arafat was a religous fanatic? You do realise that the PLO were/are in the main secular?

How many times did nationalists vote for Sinn Fein during the troubles? They were the political wing of a terrorist organisation. And that terrorist organisation comitted horrific atrocities. They threw bombs into bars and resteraunts. They bombed hotels and shopping streets. More catholics were killed by the IRA than were killed by the british army. And they refused to recognise the existence of northern Ireland. SF still refuse to take seats in parliament. And for yewars they even refused to officially recognise the existance of the freestate and later the republic.

I won't say Irish people understand what it's like to be Palestinian, but we're closer to an understanding than most European countries.

The people of Palestine have been occupied and abused for decades. I despise Hamas but Hamas were only elected after the PLO failed to make any progress. Palestinians had tried the path of secular political parties and it failed. I honestly can'y say that if I'd grown up in gaza i would not have voted for them. They same way, even thought I despise SF, I might have voted for them if I'd grown up in Belfast before/during the troubles.

BTW, Christians have been killing each other for far longer than muslims. And probably in far greater numbers. Our own country is an example of that where one christian sect dominated another. Jews were killing each other long before christianity came around. Right wing christians are funding settlements in the occupied territories because they believe it will bring about the end of the world. Jewish settlers are ultra right wing people who believe that thousands of years ago God gave them a define right to land that other people are living on. They killed over 100 children in the west bank in 2023. Will you give Christians and jews the same treatment criticism you give Muslims.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2024/04/11/israeli-ambassador-dana-erlich-a-unilateral-recognition-of-a-palestinian-state-at-this-point-sends-a-dangerous-signal/

The Irish Times is publishing propaganda of the Israeli state. Whilst I don’t agree with the expulsion of the ambassador, this still rankles.

As expected, not once does Dana Erlich acknowledge the deaths of 33,000+ Palestinians at the hands of her government. Every single thing is the fault of Hamas. It really is utterly shameful and immoral.

I think the letter only makes Dana Erlich look bad. The Israelis seem clueless at PR . To be honest Dana would be in good company in this thread with others not acknowledging the ongoing deaths of Palestinians in Gaza

let him target Hamas too while he’s at it- bunch of terrorists

She is a representative of a country that has killed 13k children in the last six months. Maybe she should complain about that rather than not being invited to the FG Ardfheis. It is completely tone deaf to complain about what other counties have said or not said when your county's action are so much worse.

I'm not asking for her to be expelled or are FG so I don't get your reference to Russia. I would say she would have got a frosty reception at the ard fheis if she would have been invited.

ah yeah I get that - but considering our neutrality stance or what’s left of it, a bit of balance would help here in terms of optics - only calling out Israel again and again and not ever referring to the atrocities of Hamas when whole countries are calling for the destruction of Israel gives the impression at least that Ireland is “siding” - we’ve absolutely nothing to gain from doing that and a lot to lose- asking both sides to turn away from violence and to allow dialogue to commence is the typical non statement we should stick to - call out atrocities by all means but call out both sides - there’s nothing wrong with saying Hamas original acts last year was murder but now Israel is heading towards genocide - both are wrong

Harris did address the hostages and the Hamas attacks in his speech to the Ard Fheis on Saturday:

"In Gaza we see a humanitarian catastrophe worsen before our eyes.

We condemn the massacre carried out by Hamas in October and again call for the release of all hostages.

But we cannot stay silent on the actions of Israel either."

That he said it doesn't matter. It isn't a good faith argument in the first place. The zionists will bring it up ad nauseam regardless. Pure deflection and attempt to own and profit off the suffering of others at a point in time

No doubt after the Ambassador called him up on it for his speech to the Dail on Tuesday.

And, wouldn't it have been more effective for him to have the Ambassador present at the Ard Fheis to hear it?

Anything else he should have mentioned? Apparently a Jewish man was told he was wearing a funny looking hat on Sackville Street in 1903. His feelings were a bit hurt and there has not been a sustained system of regular government apology for that incident yet.

Are we back to the "you can't criticize the Israeli State unless and until you can prove you've criticised every other random event in history that I've decided you have to criticise first" 😂

Perhaps he should have criticized the IDF for murdering many Israeli civilians on October 7th too? Because they did. Yet you have never brought up that no Irish politician has ever criticised them for that. But you want to rabbit on about it if they don't repeat something else enough times for your liking.

The hostages still being held in Gaza would be sufficient. As far as I recall, Leo never 'forgot' to mention them.

Nice whataboutery though. A mention of the Limerick pogrom would be helpful /s

Again, two things can be true: Harris in his Dail address didn't mention hostages. He was called up on this by the Ambassador and subsequently, perhaps independently, did remember to mention the hostages in his condemnation of Israel.

Not sure why you want Ireland to get involved with the actions of the IDF though - Hamas was recorded saying, "Soil them" about female Israeli captives. Should Ireland condemn Hamas for that.