10/14/13
As Honig notes, there is a "3-D" test for "Judeophobia". It occurs when "purported criticism slips into demonisation, delegitimisation and double-standards". Does our coverage of Jewish and Israeli affairs pa** it?
Eh, yes. Irish critics routinely demonise Israel. They question its right to exist. And they hold it to a standard not required of its neighbours. But, as they keep insisting, they are definitely not anti-Semitic, how dare anyone suggest it? Criticising the motives of people who routinely single out the state of Israel for demonisation is not tolerated in Ireland.
10/15/13
Suggestions that there may be other enemies of the Palestinian peoples who deserve censure are met with indignation and derision. Well-orchestrated campaigns ensure that anti-Israeli bias is kept in the headlines.
The double standards of those who seek to demonise democratic Israel yet are strangely silent on the atrocities committed by its neighbours would seem (to outsiders anyway) to support the accusation that many Irish "human rights campaigners" are indeed motivated by anti-Semitism.
10/16/13
But to even suggest that there's something strange about the way in which so-called "pro-Palestinians" routinely and defiantly ignore the injustices inflicted on these people by countries other than Israel, is to risk personal abuse and censure – at best.
That a leading Irish political commentator can describe Israel, the democratic home of Jewish people, where Christians, m**ms and atheists
– be they male, straight, gay or female – enjoy far more civil rights than they do in neighbouring countries, as "a cancer" on national TV and be applauded by many, is more than worrying.
10/17/13
Being gay is punishable by d**h in Gaza. No one is protesting that, are they? But of course, that doesn't mean we're anti-Semitic does it? Just anti the Jews that live in Israel.
Last October, on Arab- News.com, Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, a former Royal Saudi Naval officer wrote a ground-breaking op-ed piece called 'Arab Spring and the Israel Enemy'. In it he called for Arabs to stop demonising and blaming Israel as the source of their problems.
10/18/13
He wrote: "The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for human lives and, finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people."
He added: "Many Arabs don't know that the life expectancy of the Palestinians living in Israel is far longer than in many Arab states and they enjoy far better political and social freedom than many of their Arab brothers. Even the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank enjoy more political and social rights than in some places of the Arab world."