Uplifting ...

Several weeks ago the pro-Israel blogosphere covered the story of Cliona Campbell, a young Irish woman who came to Israel to volunteer to help the IDF. She didn't serve as a soldier but rather spent her time preparing army bags and painting bases and other such activities.

Upon her return to Ireland she was met with a wave of anger and hatred, and she was ridiculed and reviled in the press. Well, she has written an outstanding post at CiF Watch about her experience and it is a must read for anyone looking to understand the atmosphere of hatred that surrounds the people who are opposed to Israel.

Yet when I returned home to Ireland after two months of packing kitbags and painting warehouses on Israeli army bases, I was, for all purposes, the devil incarnate. As punishment for making public my volunteering in Israel, I was met by an onslaught of savage attacks and condemnation from my fellow countrymen. They called for the confiscation of my passport, claiming that I had already revoked my Irish identity the minute I volunteered for Israel. As far as they were concerned, I was a “baby killer”, a “terrorist” and a traitor to Ireland.  Many Irish people openly voiced their disappointment that I had not been raped and shot by the Israeli soldiers of whom I had worked alongside ...

To see the country of one’s birth become the feeding ground for Islamists and extremists is in no small way soul-destroying. I simply hope that someday people will wake up and realise that Ireland’s history of decades of bloody terrorist activity was never noble and never justifiable. As a nation which has endured the agony of years of terrorism, we should be on the frontline campaigning in opposition to such barbaric tactics. Has it been so long that we have forgotten that armed resistance is not the precursor to peace, but a foretaste of more savage brutality?

I always say that I understand why Jews support Israel, we have to deal with the hatred and the danger, we have no other country and no other choice. But I fail to understand how brave non-Jews can come here and tolerate the level of hatred that is directed at Israel. Perhaps I don't need to understand and rather simply say thank you.