How did Israel get so much influence? How can this be changed or overcome?

I continually ask myself the same question. How can a kind of collective guilt over the Haulocaust create a rogue state that is beyond International Law.

I too find this really strange. It’s as if Israel has some kind of hold over us all. Even regimes that would traditionally be moderate and uphold fairness and democracy seem to be afraid of them. Or beholden to them.

Which is why I am delighted to see Irish political leaders call out the Israeli gvmt for their barbarism.

I have never met a Jewish person, growing up I never understood antisemitism and still do not. I have no idea what it’s like to live in that part of the world but they are not doing themselves any favours with their land grabs and murder.

Yeah, have a read about the Left Behind series and keep telling yourself people really believe that.

Also, there is a large Jewish diaspora in the US due to a lot of pogroms and one big thing that happened in the 1940's.

There's an Irish link to the theology behind it, a lot of that stuff the evangelicals believe is based on what he made up.

This is a question that goes far beyond the limits of a discussion site like boards.ie, and would likely require a significant amount of academic work to get to the bottom of, but I'll give it a try anyway, at least from my perspective.

For starters, I don't really believe that the collective guilt angle is all that strong. Granted, modern Germany sees itself as having a special responsibility towards Israel because of its history, and I happen to agree with that view, being German myself. However, the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict go far beyond WW2 and the Shoah and right back to Sykes-Picot and the machinations of the British Empire and France during WW1, and I can't see either London or Paris weighed down by any similar collective guilt or responsibility.

More to the point, there are three major aspects with regard to the wests' continuing beneficence towards Israel.

For starters, ever since 1948, Israel has been a stable government. The country hasn't had the same rolling door of western-installed kings, tribal leaders, dictators & strongmen of all type that often only abdicate power by way of a 9mm bullet to the head that have dominated the surrounding Arab nations. Changes in government in Israel have always happened by way of the ballot box, which is remarkable in the region. More importantly though, Israel is not a tribal or clan-based society, as is the case with its Arab neighbours, which means that a change in government does not mean a massive purge of unwelcome clan members from society, and that a stable civil society and civil service were able to form. This in turn means that western ministers and senior civil servants have reliable points of contact in a way that might not be the case in Egypt, Lebanon or other countries in that region. For lack of a better word, Israel's political and social structure is just more familiar to western countries.

On a somewhat grimmer note, Israel's precarious position in the Middle East has forced it to become creative when it comes to defending itself. This is all the more the case as the country wasn't always the recipient of the type of generous military aid that seems in place nowadays. The country was subjected to several western arms embargoes, including after the 1967 Six Day War, which required it to develop its own arms industry, as well as conducting probably the last-ever "cutting out operation" in history, just as an aside. As a result, the country has one of the most advanced military industrial sectors in the world, systems such as Iron Dome, the Spike anti tank missile, or the Arrow 3 surface to air missile are considered some of the best in their sectors. And many countries simply don't want to shut off their access to these systems.

Finally, this advanced technology infuses much of Israel's economy, which is surprisingly diverse and well-developed. It is not only an exporter of a surprising variety of products of all shapes and sizes, it is also a great export market for western countries. In the end, money talks and western countries don't want to lose out on a lucrative market.

They're killing Arabs though, I think this is essentially why the west doesn't care. If those starving kids missing limbs and having their heads blown off were blonde and white well none of this would be happening, let's face it.

@thomil

Your ancestors were also starved, beaten, maimed, slaughtered and yet you pay billions a year in "reparations" to a faceless Jewish entity in a guise of victimhood.

I would have many feelings if I was a modern day German, and guilt would certainly not be one of them.

I think the reals answers lie with three Areas,

Money = Jewish wealth especially in the US fund a lot on companies through investment vehicles. So big corporate are afraid to mention it

Mossad = They have spent years gathering dirt on every International politician and use it to leverage in there direction

Research = A lot of US companies use Israel for R&D that would not be allowed in the US, which is why Israel have a lot of weapons technology patents

False. They've consistently called for this.

To suggest that the manner in which this war has been reported in the West is favourable to Israel is nothing short of outrageous. The media here in Ireland has shown absolutely no balance whatsoever in its reporting of the war, and its bias in favour of Palestine has been unwavering.

Outside of Ireland, countries in the West are happy to help Israel because Israel is an ally, firstly. Secondly, Israel was attacked by Hamas on October 7th and Israel has the right to defend itself and it's people. It's that simple. Nobody — not even countries in the Middle East that support Palestine on paper — has any real interest in helping the people of Gaza or Hamas. No one seems to want to question why that is the case, and that’s the question that needs to be answered.

Irish politicians don’t care about the hostages; Leo Varadkar made that clear with his tweet when Emily Hand was released.

https://x.com/leovaradkar/status/1728535065242612184

Classy stuff from the then Taoiseach!

There are what, 30 hostages left? So what at this stage? Why would I care about them when 10s of 1000s of kids have been murdered in the meantime? There were 5 children killed in a drone attack in Gaza last week did anyone even hear about that?

They value these hostages over 10s of 1000s of murdered women and children because the hostages are white. Simple as that.

Because a huge amount of politicians in the USA have Israeli citizenship.

It should be a rule in every single country that you cannot serve in national government if you have dual citizenship.

How can a person be expected to work solely on behalf of the country they are elected to serve if they have citizenship of another, they're bound to look after the other countries interest aswell.