Dublin standards

In “Ireland pushes Israel to resolve the Palestinian conflict” (June 23), Irish Ambassador to Israel Kyle O’Sullivan presents a politically correct defense of Ireland’s policy towards Israel. How kind of him to state that Ireland and Israel agree that government should be based on the rule of law, on democracy and on respect for human rights and dignity.

The truth is that Irish support for the Palestinians is not based on any of the above. There is neither democracy nor rule of law nor human rights in any area controlled by the PA or Hamas. No press freedom, women’s rights, gay rights, freedom of religion or any other basic rights that one can think of.

Any Palestinian who sells property to a Jew faces a death sentence. A Palestinian who recently tried to spotlight PA corruption was brutally beaten to death by the PA security forces in his own home. Fatah supporters in Gaza were thrown off high-rise buildings when Hamas seized control of Gaza. No elections have been held for a decade and a half by the PA. What democracy, rule of law or human rights is the Irish ambassador referring to in Ireland’s support for the Palestinians?

O’Sullivan’s statement that the images from Gaza last month are just the latest powerful influences on public opinion on the plight of the Palestinians really lets the cat out of the bag. Not a word about Hamas initiating the conflict, about the suffering of Israelis under a barrage of thousands of rockets fired from Gaza, about Hamas using the civilian population of Gaza as human shields.

The fact that so few Palestinians in densely populated Gaza were killed by Israeli retaliation is directly attributable to Israel’s intelligence capability and its policy of phoning people to warn them that a military target is about to be destroyed with pinpoint accuracy. In contrast not a single rocket from Gaza hit a military target in Israel in 14 days of firing over 4,000 rockets. The rockets from Gaza were fired with the intention of causing massive destruction and to disrupt and kill as many Israelis as possible. What a difference in moral standards.

It is time for honesty regarding what the Palestinians stand for. The Palestinian Charter and Hamas Covenant openly call for the eradication of Israel and its replacement by a Palestinian state from the river to the sea. Abbas has openly stated that not a single Jew will be allowed to live in Palestine. What more needs to be stated? How convenient to proclaim one’s support for human rights and then support terrorist organizations with no human rights at all.

Palestinian leaders have become incredibly rich and enjoy a lifestyle of luxury at odds with the misery and poverty that they have created for their own people. Hamas has nothing but death and destruction to offer. It is clear that Ireland’s support for the Palestinians is not based on anything that the Irish ambassador stated.

The elephant in the room as far as Irish pro-Palestinian policy is concerned is traditional antisemitism inspired by the Catholic church over centuries of blood libels. It is time for Ireland to rethink its policies.

NEVILLE BERMAN

Ra’anana