January 18, 2004

Silly Swedes Suicide bombings – understandable, disrupting an art show glorying it, not acceptable. 12:09:20 PM

The Guardian reports that former IRA bomber who was sentenced to 17 years' jail for terrorist activities in Britain and who is prominent in pro-Palestinian circles has denounced Belfast's Holocaust memorial day, claiming that it was being used to justify Israel's existence. This leads to several questions: Firstly why wouldn’t the Holocaust justify Israel’s existence. If there was a Jewish state during the 1930s and 1940s maybe it would have been prevented or there would have been a place for Jews to flee to as they were kept out of countries such as Britain and Ireland. Secondly who cares what a former IRA terrorist thinks and why is The Guardian reporting on him? The IRA certainly does not have any moral right to discuss Israel. The article notes: Throughout the history of Irish republicanism in the twentiethth century there have been strong strains of anti-Semitism. Sean Russell, the IRA leader in the Forties, openly colluded with the Nazis and died on a German U-boat off the western coast of Ireland. Russell, despite his links with the Nazi regime, is still venerated by republicans today. 12:08:58 PM