Israel closing their embassy in Dublin *Read OP for Mod Warning added 19/12/24*

The sad reality is that Irish Jews no longer have a future here, to much whooping and hollering here but it is not a good thing, in my or your opinion.

You'd have to brave and tough or foolhardy to go around Dublin with a skullcap or out for the night with a star of David chain visible.

Of course it will have an impact, Jewish people will not come here willingly and their companies won't risk them here either.

The statements from the Taoiseach and Tanaiste emphasise Ireland's consistent upholding of human rights, and deny that the Irish government is anti-Israel. That's all very fine, but the tone of a lot of comments in Ireland are anti-Israel to the point of demonising it as some sort of evil entity which should not exist.

What Taoiseach and Tanaiste should do is make it very clear that any Jew-baiting or anti-semitic stuff it totally unacceptable. Also they cannot ignore the danger that the USA, especially under a Trump administration, might exact a very high price for our virtue-signalling.

There is a history of anti-semitism lurking in Irish nationalism (e.g. Arthur Griffith). Many years ago, a relative whoe was an active Republican in Northern Ireland in the 30s, said to me that the Holocoust was a myth - all British propaganda. We must never allow our disapproval of the Israeli Government's actions spill oven into any form of hatred, whether expressed by word or deed, against Jews. And we must make that crystal clear to our own very small,and I suspect vulnarable, Jewish community.

It has, it's asked for the definition of genocide to be changed so the Israeli's can be charged with it.

Ireland also turns a blind eye to atrocities by other countries but never turns a blind eye when Israel is involved.

If you have a higher standard of behavior expect of one country (Israel) than you do of others then that is an anti-Israel position.

Ireland has done nothing.

It continues to support America.

It's anti Israel because we make an exception for them.

If we were such paragons of virtue diplomatically we would be speaking out more often on other atrocities but of course we don't.

In the Irish politicians world Israel's crimes are worse than other countries crimes, that's why you can consider it anti-Israeli.

Well we did nothing back then, so why all the change now.

Truth is our actions achieve nothing just a load of spouting about stuff that has no impact.This isn't going to make a blind bit of difference to Israel, let the big countries that can actually make an impact on Israel sort out these sorts of issues we should look after our own interests first and foremost.We can't even defend our own island and yet we're sticking our oar in about a ward 3000 miles way, maybe if we want to have a real opinion about war we should take defence of our own country seriously first.

So I assume you were up in arms over what the Saudis did in Yemen or what is happening in Sudan right now or the bloodshed in Syria over the past decade or more?

I mean if people were appalled with the killing of innocent civilians then surely there would have been constant protests about those conflicts.

my understanding of the Irish position is:

• we are supportive of a two state solution.
• We are not supportive of terrorist organizations such as Hamas.
• We are not supportive of the indiscriminate bombing, killing and starvation of Palestinians.

Am I missing anything? I don’t believe we have ever supported any aggression against Israel or Jews.

Because they know the damage this news can do to Ireland.

It's not a negative for them at all to close their embassy it however may cause reputational damage for Ireland.

I don't like the Israeli's I think they behave disgracefully as a country and basically the definition of a cry bully , however I fail to see any way Irish politicians remarks on Israel and their singling out of them constantly does for Ireland and my opinion on our foreign policy is it should be a foreign policy based on what is good for Ireland first and foremost.

The conflation of having actual principles and "virtue signalling" is one of the banes of modern discourse.

What's interesting here is how several posters mention how Ireland's stance might anger the Americans, or investors, or the tech companies etc. So I don't know — should we just readily support Israel and have no principled stance on the issue so that we signal the right virtues to investors?

If it's wrong to virtue signal for what one alleges is social credit, why is it any more correct to virtue signal for financial credit?

Because FAFO. Ireland has far more to lose in this than Israel does.

Actually Israel has nothing to lose in it. Ireland likes to think it's an honest broker though, and this makes that an impossible claim. Ireland has taken sides.

Which would be fair enough I suppose (albeit in contradiction with our increasingly threadbare claim to be neutral), if only we'd chosen the side that wasn't that of "Islamic Resistance", Iran and Russia. Or the side that wants some form of democracy and equal rights for women, gays and other minorities. But that's the other side. Or maybe even if we'd just cynically chosen a side that could bring us some financial benefits. But again, that's the other side.

Instead we chose Islamic Resistance, the side that throws gays off the tops of buildings, that allows wife beating, that harasses christian women in the street for not wearing the islamic veil, and the side that is a massive taker of international aid, not a producer of anything worth either buying from or selling to, except a small amount of olive oil I suppose.

And all that, so as to virtue signal in the Dail. Madness.

Those are different, they are Civil Wars with outside interference. Yes they are terrible but Ireland doesn't have meaningful relations with those places, and we do condemn violence against civilians in all forms in the strongest possible terms.

Israel is attempting a land grab, they've only just taken more land in Syria this weekend. The want the Palestinians gone, simple as.

Israel wants to be treated like a western/adult nation. Yet they have killed 1000's of children in a collective punishment, that is 100% completely disproportionate to the terrorist attack they suffered over a year ago.

Ireland needs to hold Israel to account because (believe it or not) we are their #1 Trade Partner in the EU. The same way we did with South Africa all those years ago.

The Genocide definition does need to be expanded. At the moment dropping a bomb on a hospital to kill 1 enemy when you know you'll kill 100's of innocent civilians is currently not defined as genocide. If it was 100 Israeli Civilians they wouldn't do it. No one life is more valuable than another.

Israel is absolutely terrified of the occupied territories bill, so much so that they have pushed the US to lean on Ireland to not pass it. The concern is that they land they have taken is economically useless for trade with their #1 EU trade partner AND if it gets traction in Spain, Norway and the rest of the EU it's going to cause them a real problem.

Our president congratulated the president of a country that hangs young men from cranes for random misdemeanors, and whose police force rapes young women before executing them for "bad hijab".

https://wrrc.wluml.org/news/iran-stop-further-denials-rape-virgin-girls-prior-execution

But yeah, it's not about Israel at all. Just our sheer decency and our inability to stay quiet in the face of suffering. But only when Israel is involved, oddly. We're grand with all the rest.