11 May 2012

Special report:

Irish journalist slams silence of politicians in face of 'group anti-Semitism' mindset; says that in Ireland either one obeys anti-Israel orders of left-wing mind-thugs, or one is lynched.
And somehow it goes together with another op-ed:
From the outside, Western faculties appear as genteel oases of wisdom and knowledge. In truth, institutions of higher education are becoming brutal offspring of anti-Jew hatred. Famous faculties that have been an historical cradle of European civilization are sacrificing freedom and Israel to barbarism and obscurantism.
Not a pleasant reading, both of these articles, but necessary.

Hat tip: Fred Lapides.

Update: The first article should be read with a grain of salt, keeping in mind the following comment by Shaun Downey (aka Jams O Donnell), to whom I defer on the matter:
The first article made grim reading... until I noticed the by-line and saw it was written by Kevin Myers. The man is a total arse, Personally I would give more credence to, say, George Galloway than I would to him.. That's the esteem I hold him in.

It's not that what he says is inaccurate as such but overall it is a concatenation of largely unrelated events to justify his views. he does . There certainly has been an undercurrent of antisemitism in Irish society. The Limerick "pogroms" of the early 20th century did happen. Most of Limerick's Jewish community went to Cork where they were pretty much welcomed (but then being of Cork parents, I am a little biased towards the People's Republic!)
The De Valera condolences incident is also true. Much as I dislike De Valera intensely (he was a dead hand on the development of the country), his motives were not to support Hitler as such.
It's hard to describe De Valera's mindset. He was a highly intelligent, but very small minded man. He also had a highly misplaced sense of protocol. He also led a nation that was obstinately neutral de jure (although de facto Ireland leaned heavily towards the allies).
When Roosevelt died De Valera did not visit the US embassy to sign a book of condolence, This my be due to the fact his personal relations with the Ambassador David Gray were poor ( the British representative in Dublin, Brendan Maffey, had a far better relationship with De Valera, although it could be rocky at times). Flags were flown at half mast and the Dail rose to show their respect for Roosevelt.
De Valera's visit to see Hempel, the German Ambassador, was probably in part a make of personal respect for Hempel, a warped sense of protocol and perhaps a sense of contrariness. It was an idiotic act on De Valera's part but should not be seen as an endorsement of the Reich.
In linking these acts to the stupid acts of pro-palestinians in intimidating a band from touring Israel, Myers is throwing in the kitchen sink and wrecking his argument.

8 comments:

Shaun Downey (Jams O Donnell) said...

The first article made grim reading... until I noticed the by-line and saw it was written by Kevin Myers. The man is a total arse, Personally I would give more credence to, say, George Galloway than I would to him.. That's te esteem I hold him in.

It's not that what he says is inaccurate as such but overall it is a concatenation of largely unrelated events to justify his views. he does . There certainly has been an undercurrent of antisemitism in Irish society. The Limerick "pogroms" of the early 20th century did happen. Most of Limerick's jewish community went to Cork where they were pretty much welcomed (but then being of Cork parents, I am a little biased towards the People's Republic!)

The De Valera condolences incident is also true. Much as I dislike De Valera intensely (he was a dead hand on the development of the country), his motives were not to support Hitler as such.

It's hard to describe De Valera's mindset. He was a highly intelligent, but very small minded man. He also had a highly misplaced sense of protocol. He also led a nation that was obstinately neutral de jure (although de facto Ireland leaned heavily towards the allies).

When Roosevelt died De Valera did not visit the US embassy to sign a book of condolence, This my be due to the fact his personal relations with the Ambassador David Gray were poor ( the British representative in Dublin, Brendan Maffey, had a far better relationship with De Valera, although it could be rocky at times). Flags were flown at half mast and the Dail rose to show their respect for Roosevelt.

De Valera's visit to see Hempel, the German Ambassador, was probably in part a make of personal respect for Hempel, a warped sense of  protocal and perhaps a sense of contrariness. It was an idiotic act on De Valera's part but should not be seen as an endorsement of the Reich.

In linking these acts to the stupid acts of pro-palestinians in intimidating a band from touring Israel, Myers is throwing in the kitchen sink and wrecking his argument.


 

Shaun Downey (Jams O Donnell) said...

 Sorry for the long screed, I'm not condoning the events Myers relates but he is not a good source of information. 

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Thanks, Jams - noted and copied to the body of the post.

David All said...

Suspect that the last reason given, a sense of contrariness, was the main motivation for De Valera's visit to the German Ambassador. De Valera was an Irish Nationalist who seldom missed an opportunity to twist the tail of the British Lion. Or as Black Americans would put it, "stick it to the Man" (the White Establishment) 

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Thanks, David, duly noted.

GideonSwort said...

The second article is more poignant and factually representative of what goes on in European campuses. 
Jew hatred has turned into de-facto harassment and violence on the continent that should know better. The consequence of Europe's pathetic handling of rampant Antisemitism is turning into mass spillage of European Jews throwing anchors in Israel, with an annual exponential increase in the number of European Jewish students signing on to Israeli universities. 
The anecdotal evidence of meeting European Jews in Israel who have made Aliyah, having encountered Antisemitic violence in one form or another has become overwhelming and alarming. It takes a visit to any random Aliyah centre in Israel to turn any previously assumed anecdotal evidence into pure undeniable statistical fact.  

Shaun Downey (Jams O Donnell) said...

 To be honest I would put his warped sense of propriety as the main motivation..It's not that sticking it to "Brits"does not remain a more popular national sport than Hurling in Ireland though
!
Although Ireland leaned heavily towards the allies in WWII in many respects (tales of U boat bases in Ireland, for example, are just that), De Valera also wanted to show that his government strongly adhered to the appearance of neutrality. Having shown his respects on the passing or Roosevelt (flags at half mast, Dail rising) I think he genuinely thought that the niceties of protocol really did require him to offer his condolences on the death of Hitler.

Such a mindset boggles the mind but that is De Valera for you! Had he a miligramme of nous, he would have seen the consequences of such a stupid act but he didn't.

There is a joke that I think passed the lips of every one of the 60,000 or so men and women from Eire (the exact figure isn't known for sure) who joined the British armed forces during WWII  "Aren't you glad that Dev kept us out of the war".

Shaun Downey (Jams O Donnell) said...

 Why thank you Snoopy. I didn't mean to hijack this post and I never did get to read the second article!