Israel and Ireland - Fighting corruption

by T E S Fri Aug 01, 2008 01:54

There are historical parallels between what my friends who pray five times a day call the "zionist entity" , and what my friends who never pray at all call "the 26 county state".

Both are products of muddled and schizoid British policy and violent guerrilla wars. Israel was founded in 1948, while the Republic of Ireland came into being in 1949. Both states have never clearly resolved to their own satisfaction what their borders are, and both of course lay claim to a widespread diaspora and a "special relationship" with the United States.

One could keep coming up with these, of course, but they are parallels, not similarities, and it's probably more important to focus on the differences between the two countries in the light of the tellingly different resignations of their premiers.

Israel is sometimes referred to "an army with a country rather than a country with an army", and perhaps that is the root of the divergent paths the post colonial journeys of the two countries have taken.

Israel has always been something different than just an economy, a society, a culture and a people etc, all the things that other democracies tell themselves they are, fall short of the Israeli narrative.

Israel is a project to install a Eurocentric Jewish apartheid military state in the middle of a huge population of Arab Muslims. Ireland, by contrast, is much more like one of the post colonial Arab states that surround Israel- a country of people who were unused to running to their own affairs, a state that arrived almost by historical accident, whereby suddenly a people that had been imperial subjects found themselves without masters, and promptly reverted to comforting theocracy on the surface while secretly filling their pockets with whatever they could get for the benefit of local tribe and family.

Ahern's money grabbing and cronyism would be normal in any of Israel's neighbours, and it's only the unusual circumstances of the zionist and racist project that is Israel which makes "normal" post colonial behaviour difficult. Israel is corrupt in different ways of course, as the grabbing of Palestinian homes and land shows.

Perhaps it's true to say that a country founded on such a huge and continuing robbery has no room for little robbers.

by Shaz Fri Aug 01, 2008 16:08

Actually, just finished reading Richard Crowley's book No Man's Land. For someone who feels under-educated on the whole Middle East question, I thought it was a brilliant read. Thorough and engaging. Definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the Israel - Palestine conflict.

by Wondering Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:20

I'm puzzled about the "Global Security Fund" and the way it appears to be a taboo subject which the vast majority of people seem to be terrified of discussing -- and which is all the more reason why it absolutely should and must be discussed perhaps?

Mr Ashley Mote MEP (addressing the European Parliament):

"Mr President, I wish to draw your attention to the Global Security Fund, set up in the early 1990s under the auspices of  Jacob Rothschild. This is a Brussels-based fund and it is no ordinary fund: it does not trade, it is not listed and it has a totally different purpose. It is being used for geopolitical engineering purposes, apparently under the guidance of the intelligence services."

Some additional information on this subject can be found via http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Global+Security+Fu...earch

Nobody at all -- police or anyone else -- seems to be investigating this particular "slush fund" (conservatively estimated to be worth $65 Trillion some claim), and I can't help wondering why?

by Alec Johnson Sat Aug 02, 2008 20:13

Feel free to compare corrupt politicans to other rotten politicians, greed knows no fronteirs but please dont compare this country and its police force to Israel's genocidal security forces. When Irish police or army start going into third world countries and instigating apartheid systems of control and imprisonment on ordinary decent people, then I will be looking for resignation across the board.
Who gives a toss about Olmert's grubby deals when Israel is stamping its feet all over Palestinian rights and threatening World war on a daily basis.

Get a bit of perpective , please.

by Anthony Sheridan - http://www.publicinquiry.eu/ Tue Aug 05, 2008 16:14

The article is not about the Israeli security forces, Palestinian rights or the possibility of world war Alec; it’s about corruption in Ireland.

The comparison between Ireland and Israel is simply to demonstrate the fact that Irish authorities do not recognise or act against white collar crime.

It happened to be Israel because of recent police investigations there but it could have been any country where law enforcement is taken seriously.

Regards