Sep 7, 2006 20:38

The Israeli-Irish troubles

If one were to throw a sack of flour over the Irish parliament, it is unlikely that anybody pro-Israeli would get white," says Rory Miller. "Among the 120 members of the D il - the Irish parliament's lower house - and the 100 members of the Senate, not one name springs to mind as a regular defender of Israel. There are either those who do not care or pro-Palestinians."

More surprisingly, he says, throughout the 1980s successive Irish governments were prepared to overlook PLO terrorism that directly attacked Irish troops serving in Lebanon with the UN

In February 1980, Ireland became the first EEC

member to call publicly for the inclusion of the PLO in the political process at a time when Yasser Arafat's group not only refused to recognize Israel's right to exist, but was engaged in a relentless campaign of terror against Israeli and Jewish targets across the globe

Alan Shatter

an outspoken apologist for Israeli reprisals in the Gaza Strip (RTÉ