Ireland vs Israel - To play or not to play, that is the question Read OP for Mod Warning

Stop funding Israel?

Can you point to a single post where I've supported Israel?

I have not opposed every form of protest or a boycott. I have opposed dumb ideas and actions that make absolutely no sense or have absolutely no impact.

A boycott of two football matches by a country that does trade worth upwards of €3bn a year to Israel. It wont serve any purpose.

The sentiment below is something I very much believe in. The Zara Belfast protest is another "symbolic protest" at a shop that has no actual trade links of benefit to Israel. Its all for show, for social media likes. For people wanting to make them feel better about themselves. And it serves no purpose. "Every purchase enables genocide" said one protestor, but you can be guaranteed that mantra is not one she follows through on in her own life when there is no social media videos being made.

Eventually this virtue signalling stuff becomes tiresome and will drift into nothing because most of the people behind it will get bored or find some other obsession. The volume of people at these events is tiny for the most part which also speaks volumes about where peoples priorities lie.

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We then got the Mary Manning /Dunnes angle thrown into the mix. Look what that achieved i am told, conveniently overlooking that it was an actual boycott of SA goods. I proposed that the same should then happen with Israeli products and im told thats "dumb". Is it dumb?, or is it the selfish needs/wants of such a protest too big an ask of such a virtuous bunch?

The Palestinians are far from innocent in all of this, I also am very much opposed to the culture that exists there so im not going to support them or their plight, especially given they have been doing exactly what the Israelis have been doing. If people take issue with that, not my problem. I support neither one or the other.

The FAI raised a motion with UEFA, Its not like they have sat on their hands and done nothing at all. They have done more then most but now are getting hammered for not doing more by the very people who are willing to talk, but not take action. So either put up, or shut up is my take.

We are talking about Celtic because you made such a song and dance about it in April and you still cannot accept it was nonsense.

You tried to control the narrative, I had to agree to your terms before posting and then that was the idea.

And its also hypocritical given celtics love affair with IDF soldiers, yet you have a monumental issue with Robbie Keane.

Well its a better option then worrying about a backwards sh1thole thousands of miles away.

You say a football boycott is pointless because Ireland still trades with Israel. Then when broader economic boycotts are discussed, you call people hypocrites for not being perfect enough. So symbolic action is too small, wider action is too hard, consumer action is impure.

Functional support - to keep it all going.

The Dunnes strike started with a small number of workers refusing to handle South African goods. By your logic that was tiny/ symbolic/disruptive/ pointless. That is not the case.

Yet when I stated my support for the FAI decision one person in particular came back at me about own poorly run the FAI has been as a Reason not trust their statements. The most recent statement is below. There was others previously

but stop painting as some paragon of virtue when it comes to financial planning and integrity and how it impacts the viability of the organisation. We know their history and I'm not saying the still have a John Delaney in the mix but they've a lot of ground to make up before they can be assumed to have any trustworthy standing in this area.

So the FAI cannot be trusted, but they should be the ones to boycott Israel, and we then play Celtic, the club who loves signing Ex IDF solider. What sort of protest is that? We wont play one team because its Israel but instead let's play Celtic who have signed 6 Israelis in last 25 or so years, and at the same time they, celtic fans, will castigate robbie Keane because he worked in Israel for a year.

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So if people want a boycott of Israel and use Dunnes as an example, why not go down that very same route? Will people all over the world be willing to do that though? I think the answer would be a resounding No.

We have also seen the OTB brought to the Dail and its about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Largely because it has no legal basis. The Irish government cannot stop Intel in Ireland dealing with Intel in Israel.

If you are going to protest, why not go for something meaningful instead of endless pointless "gestures". The "symbolic protests" are at the stage now where large amount of people are not interested anymore. The whole world these days knows what is happening in any part of the world almost instantly. The "symbolic gestures" are pointless especially when the targets of them are in no way involved in Israel.

How much exposure did the Zara protest get, especially given what has happened in Belfast in the past week? I would say if you conducted a survey in Belfast now, pretty much nobody would even know it happened beyond those present.

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Zara Belfast does not trade in Israel

Intel in Dublin does.

The protest was outside Zara Belfast. Utterly meaningless, served no purpose bar making a few virtue signalling idiots feel better about themselves.

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We then had one poster who wants the FAI to leave UEFA. And if that means the FAI go out of business so be it. That literally means all organised football activity in the country stops. Dead in its tracks. But yeah let's do it for the morals.

No governing body means no football. Every piece of administrative support structure is gone. Insurance, referees, coaching, player safety and safeguarding (especially given so many kids play).

Gutless?

Did you protest about Ireland playing Saudi Arabia in 2002 world cup or Qatar friendly in football? Or the friendlies v Oman ?

Will you protest about the cricket team playing Afghanistan ?

Is there a clear definition of whose lives are more valuable therefore that's where we start to develop morals?

To bring it back to basics. The FAI boycotting two games will change nothing. Its not going to create a snowball effect.

If a boycott happened, By mid october, the FAI will be left dealing with the consequences and the rest of the world moves on with only a Tiny percentage of the world population aware of it. Then we will have Brian Kerr bemoaning the FAI announcing cutbacks to activities or redundancies because they are sacrificing €10-15m in much needed income, a move he supported to begin with.

Im not letting anybody off the hook because I never put them on a hook to begin with. Thats for political leaders to do. Thats their job.

Protests against innocent bystanders are meaningless.

If "my actions" equate to support, does every person who buys products or services which emanate from Israel equate to support? Please define what supporting Israel actually entails?