In this blog, I’ve often covered the scenery-chewing paranoiac ramblings of Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Boaz Modai and his wife, the deputy ambassador, Nurit Tinari-Modai. During Operation Protective Edge, Irish activists held rousing protests outside the Israeli embassy in which they dramatized their opposition to the slaughter in Gaza. Political allies of the activist community in the Irish parliament said publicly that the Israeli diplomats should be expelled. Naturally, given the nuttiness I documented here, it’s no surprise the Irish left has had enough of the Modai hasbara road show.
Summoned to parliament in recent days, Modai has lashed out at the protesters accusing them of anti-Semitic hate reminiscent of 1930s Germany. In other words, he’s accused them of being Nazis without using the word explicitly
Ms. Tinari-Modai gave a Hebrew interview (audio) to Galey Tzahal (IDF Radio) in which she went, if possible, even farther off the deep end. Here’s what she said in part:
Ireland is divided into three parts: there’s the indifferent majority, the Righteous Gentiles who are activists for Israel, and the incited, anti-Semitic, brutish masses harboring a profound, deep-rooted, rapacious hatred of Jews. Behind the mask of concern for the rights of Palestinians they blame Israel for crimes against humanity, for [perpetrating] a Shoah [against Palestinians], and being the personification of evil. They burn Israeli flags and vandalize stores selling Israeli products. They throw goods on the floor, it’s complete hysteria. They protested here in every city last weekend. This is frustrating, it’s challenging, but we have no other choice than to be victorious.
She added that seventy years ago the Nazis dehumanized the Jews of Europe. They made them subhumans which permitted their eventual extermination. Today, in Ireland, she claimed, there was a similar ‘absolute dehumanization’ of the Israeli, the Zionist by Irish anti-Semites. Though she doesn’t say it explicitly, the unspoken corollary is that a future Shoah against Israel could being right there in Ireland. She raises the dreaded “domino” effect, saying such hatred will begin in Ireland but won’t end there. It will spread like the plague to Britain and from there throughout Europe. This mirrors a similar warning of the contagion of radical Islam which they swore would begin in Ireland and spread throughout Europe till there was no more civilization and it had all been turned into an Islamic state.
The embassy offered a bowdlerized translation of her remarks for the Irish public which significantly (but not completely) toned down the intensity of her rhetoric. Unfortunately, Irish media accepted this false representation of her remarks without bothering to get their own translation.
Hey, I don’t know about you, but if I was the foreign minister of any country which employed a diplomat spewing such invective against the local population I’d have him recalled and on a plane home so fast his head would spin. But clearly, Modai’s role in Ireland is to provoke the country’s left-wing on behalf of some imagined pro-Israel agenda. He does precisely what his bosses in Tel Aviv want him to do. They don’t want good relations with Ireland, they only want to make a point. God help the country whose diplomats have no interest in diplomacy, but rather in hard-headed provocation of their hosts.
The Israeli foreign ministry has, over the past few years, harbored its share of miscreants, sex offenders, and brutalists. None of it seems to phase Netanyahu or Lieberman.
The wonder is that the Irish political class, even those who aren’t on the left, have stood for this outrageous conduct. What will it take before these Israeli loons go too far and alienate even the political establishment?
Israelis seem to have an infinite capacity for deluding themselves about the real reasons for the dislike of their robber-state. It is very unfortunate that this handy blame-all, anti-semitism, is still available to therm. In that respect their situation is different from that of the apartheid-Afrikaners. These could have complained about anti-Afrikanerism but this only would have incited ridicule. The Israeli misuse of the term anti-semitism promises ultimately a similar fate for this term.
My hunch is that the Irish distaste for Israel, and its ambassadorial couple, has nothing to do with anti-semitism and everything with the fact that the Irish are the West European nation with the most recent experience of colonialism, not as perpetrators but as victims. The Irish have too long an experience with the British abuse of their nation, and the layers of hypocrisy under which it was covered, not to recognise a similar phenomenon somewhere else.
Before 1975 Ireland didn’t want any diplomatic relations with Israel. The Israeli attack on Iraq’s nuclear reactor, an example of lawlessness that would have aroused the sharpest criticism if it had come from any other nation, caused another hitch in the relations and Ireland did not allow an Israeli embassy on its territory until 1993.
Now there is an online petition calling for the expulsion of this embassy and the self righteous couple that occupies it. The Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, has openly called for it. Said Adams: “Today marks the 17th anniversary of the IRA cessation in 1997. This is a timely reminder of the efficacy of dialogue and inclusive negotiation as an alternative to protracted armed conflict.
“That principle is as applicable today to the situation in the Middle East as it was to Ireland in 1997.
…
“However the time has long past for merely expressing concern to a Government that is clearly oblivious to the outrage of the international community at their actions in Gaza.
‘’’
“The decision by the Israeli Government, in the face of international anger, to escalate its military offensive by launching a ground offensive requires a firm and resolute response by the Irish Government, which must now expel the Israeli Ambassador.
“The Irish Government should also push for the immediate suspension of the EU’s preferential trade agreements (Israel-EU Association Agreement and Euro-Med Agreement) with Israel.”
dear arie,thanks for your wise words,you hit the nail on the head,over here in ireland the bankers could not get 10000 people to march in protest but the plight of gaza did, for the reasons you said. we have no problems with jewish religion or people,if it was palestinians doing the same to jews we would be supporting jewish people in the same way. it really is as simple as that, we still remember.
Hey Richard – it was rabble.ie that brought her IDF interview to public attention in Ireland first, the translation we had that evening was from an Israeli source but, like all translations, is open to correction. When you see people quoting ‘heathen hordes’ it comes from that initial post. https://www.facebook.com/wearerabble/photos/a.482731835105668.104998.126266120752243/751693801542802/?type=1
@ Paul: Thanks for finding the original post to which I’ll link. And yes, I agree. A number of the words she used in the interview may be interpreted various ways. I translated “heathen hordes” as “incited masses.” Though the specific words may be different, essentially, the meanings are very close. I didn’t mean to criticize the rabble.ie translation, but the one offered by the embassy, which was defanged.
When my Irish passport arrives in the next few days I will be proud to be named as a leftist anti-Zionist as well. I think every country can be split exactly as described in this article
Israeli’s have this astonishing blind spot. They confuse the terms ‘anti-Semite’ and ‘people who are appalled and disgusted by Israel’s recent actions.’ These are two totally different groups of people and the second group is overwhelmingly larger than the first.
Thank you to all the Irish people for their support. Free Palestine from barbaric people who don’t belong there!
As an Irish citizen I find the words and behaviour of the Israeli ambassador and his wife deeply offensive. i am very disappointed in the passivity of my Minister of Foreign affairs. I have emailed and phoned the Dept of Foreign Affairs several time but there was no response.
I am proud of those Irish people who continue to protest about the ongoing occupation of Palestine. The treatment of the people of Palestine and in particular the people of Gaza is shameful and the International community have left them down.
I would say that the vast majority of Irish people are horrified about the recent assault on Gaza but the general feeling is that Israel does not care and with the support of the US they will not change.
I have met several of our peacekeepers who served with the UN in the Middle East and without exception they report that the behaviour of the Israeli army is arrogant and aggressive.
As has been illustrated by the remarks by the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, there is a complete denial of the truth and the only way to deal with opposition is the use the old ‘Anti-Semitic’ card. They don’t realise that we know the difference between Judaism and Zionism.
The BDS campaign is being supported in Ireland and I sincerely hope that with the growing awareness of the shocking injustice that is being perpetrated on Palestine by Israel that International Law will be applied to Israel and that justice will prevail.
The only way forward is through action and many people in Ireland are supporting the BDS campaign.
For anyone who’s interested, here’s what happened when the Ambassador and the Deputy Ambassador were grilled in front of a parliamentary committee last week … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djZKr_F0KfU&list=UUfvYp5B50SGYLIgOewJZmnw
I don’t think you understand, the fact that the whole world is so disgusted at Israel has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the people who happen to live there are Jewish. Nobody cares what religion you are and you need to move beyond hiding behind a belief that your religion has anything to do with why people feel the way they do about Israel. It would make not one iota of difference if the people who lived there were Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Catholic or Protestant. We despise the actions of Israel and the way they have treated the people of Palestine, not the religion of it’s people who happen to live there.
Jew Hatred and Anti Semitism, why are those the only 2 things that always come out of an Israeli’s mouth during any debate they cannot win? It seems the Israeli ideology is so bankrupt they have to resolve to such cheap escape clichés. lol
They should be put out of our country right away
[comment deleted: Islmophobia and anti-Semitism are prohibited here]
As one who has been to Ireland several times and as early as 1971 I was then verbally attacked on the Palestinian situation without any provocation from my side whatsoever.
I have experienced Dublin on a Sunday where everybody{including the bus drivers}are drunk, a sight I have never witnessed before.
The Irish version of Catholicism is that they still believe in deicide and let us not forget the Magdalene affair.
Thus I cannot take the Irish seriously.
@ david brown: As someone who lived and worked in Ireland for nearly a year in 1983, I can say your experience is completely alien to mine. I found the Irish generous, thoughtful, empathic, hard working & genuine. I think you’re full of crap based on my own experience.
“David Brown” – I was reading through this blog, my first visit, and I was at the back of my mind formulating a few comments for when I finished reading.
Then I came across your comment, and I said to myself “why bother, Éamonn, when there are dimwits like this guy just spouting venomous drivel from his obnoxious what-passes-for-a-brain”. Éamonn, Dublin, Ireland.
Dear Israel,
Please try to elect some leadership who is interseted in working towards a peace with the palestinians. Yes, we know they don’t act like they want this, but when two nations act like a pair of drunken abusers towards one another, one of them has to try to stand up and be the better person and lead the other towards some settlement or the chiildren of both states end up as the ones who are damaged.
Also, if you could withdraw Boaz Modai and appoint him ambassador to antartica that would be really good. I know you dont like Ireland much, but de don’t deserve this!
It is really really insulting to decent Jewish people around our world to assume they support an entity that commits horrendous war crimes. Enough already of the Jewish issue- Israel is a pariah on the world stage because of it’s ACTIONS; it’s majority religion is irrelevant, except with bigoted zionist who view humans as either Jewish or non-Jewish. And, if an entity is guilty of anti-Semitism it most certainly is israel; israel is persecuting a true Semitic people, the indigenous native Palestinians, of all religions.
We don’t really want the ambassador to leave. Those two are an endless source of entertainment! What will they say next ?