RUTHFULLY YOURS

Hibernian Anti-Semitism By G. Murphy Donovan
Ireland is no stranger to religious or racial hatred. Part of the trouble is geography. Nurtured by religion and isolation, island monocultures often breed narrow minds and asocial practice. Clerical pedophilia and chronic alcoholism might be two Irish markers. Vendetta and honor killings would be examples from other island cultures such as Sicily and Corsica. Ireland’s antipathy for English Protestants is surely a legacy of colonial repression and a Reformation that never came to the Emerald Isle. Absence of religious reform is something that Irish and Muslim worlds have in common. Irish cultural attitudes were surely influenced by English imperial overlords too who were for centuries the gold standard for presumptions of sectarian, class, and racial superiority. Not much of that history was lost on the Irish.

British influence may have been formative, yet a monolithic Catholic Church was dominant in Ireland for over a thousand years. Many Irishmen like to think of Eire as the land of “saints and scholars,” the most Catholic country in Europe. Many an Irish anecdote reveals, however, a darker side of Gaelic tribalism. The civilized way was thought to be, “Don’t get angry, get even.”

Indeed, another aphorism suggests the Irish make good soldiers because they will take any side of an argument as long as it ends in a fight. Brouhaha, blarney, boycott, donnybrook, Finnian, hooligan, kybosh, shillelagh, smithereens, paddy wagon, Irish wake, and whiskey are all Irish contributions to Anglo-American rhetoric, as is the word “phony.” The meme that binds linguistically might charitably be described as pugnacious chauvinism.

The latest fight in Ireland is about Jews, although the run-of-the-mill Finnian socialist is quick to claim that real issues are human rights, the so-called “occupation” of Palestine, or the oppressive policies of a “Zionist” Israel. Nonetheless, just as the Continent is plagued again by anti-Jewish hate, tiny Catholic Ireland is now thought to be the most anti-Semitic nation in the European Union. The evidence for Irish bigotry is overwhelming.

The children are coming, again.

Tens of thousands of children, none of whom will be joined by their parents, are expected to leave their homes in Central America this spring and summer. They are likely to swarm through Mexico before winding up at the southern door of the United States.

The Migration Policy Institute estimate of close to 40,000 children is about half the number of the kids who arrived at our nation’s border with Mexico last year. But still, 40,000 children is a substantial number. They would easily fill one of our nation’s smaller cities, towns or villages.

At best, it is amateur hour.

At worst, the rash decision by Marilyn Mosby, the Maryland state’s attorney for Baltimore City, to bring an array of internally inconsistent charges, including murder, against a half dozen police officers in connection with the death of Freddie Gray is a frightening display of state complicity in mob justice.

Three of the arrested officers, including the one facing the most severe charge of second-degree murder, are African-American. We’d better hope that black cops’ lives matter.

I was attending a conference on Friday. It was thus my good fortune, when asked for a first impression of the charges, not to have heard Ms. Mosby’s embarrassing speech announcing them.

On April 25, a Haifa theater staged a play that could be construed as a show of solidarity with a terrorist who kidnapped and murdered Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. One of the organizers of the play was the group Coalition of Women for Peace. This group supports boycotts against Israel and is funded by the European Union, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

On Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism last month, while Israelis attended ceremonies honoring Israel’s fallen, the organizations Combatants for Peace (funded by Spain, Germany and the Netherlands) and the Parents Circle Families Forum (funded by the U.S., the European Union and Switzerland) held an “alternative” ceremony, to which families of terrorists were invited.

On Independence Day, the organization Zochrot (funded by Germany, Belgium, Finland, the U.K., Switzerland and the Netherlands), which seeks the dissolution of the State of Israel and the return of Palestinian refugees, was especially active.

Clinton signs on to the campaign to rewrite the First Amendment to limit political speech.

Progressivism’s ever-tightening grip on the Democratic Party is on full display in Hillary Clinton’s presidential platform. Starting with her kickoff speech in Iowa, and in subsequent venues across the country, she spoke of her campaign’s “four fights,” one of which is a constitutional amendment on campaign finance. This marks Mrs. Clinton as an adherent to one of the newest and most fervently held tenets of modern progressive teaching: Citizens United v. FEC is an evil that must be destroyed at any cost.

Sen. Cotton won an election for standing on conservative principles and if he ruffles the feathers of establishment “corkers” good for him and the country….rsk

Arkansas lawmaker has been unusually vocal, drawing the ire of some Republican colleagues

WASHINGTON—Freshman Sen. Tom Cotton’s temporary office is located in the less-than-desirable basement of the Russell Senate building, reflecting his rookie status. Like other junior senators, he performs his share of Senate chores, including presiding over the chamber. But the similarities end there.

Among this year’s crop of 13 newly minted senators, Mr. Cotton, who served one term in the House, has emerged early on as the most vocal and polarizing newcomer, set apart by his headline-grabbing foreign policy.

The Arkansas Republican’s tactics have drawn praise from his conservative supporters, but irritated some GOP colleagues when his moves have conflicted with their efforts.

Long gone are the days when Senate freshmen were expected to keep their heads down and mouths closed for their first months in office. Still, even in a chamber where newcomers, such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Ted Cruz (R., Texas), have entered with a national following and not shied away from bucking their leaders at times, Mr. Cotton has drawn unusual attention, particularly for inserting himself into negotiations with Iran.

The protests over the past week in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, sparked by the unprovoked beating of Ethiopian-Israeli soldier Damas Pakada at the hands of two police officers, are causing pangs of guilt and remorse across the country. And rightly so, but largely for the wrong reasons.

Immigrants in all countries suffer in one way or another. Jews from the Diaspora who “make aliyah” are no exception. Unlike, say, the United States or Australia, Israel’s establishment was based on a shared religion and nationhood. Regardless of the ostensible homogeneity attributed to a state such as this, Israel has all the characteristics of, and problems inherent in, a “melting pot” society. This is what makes it so rich in fabric and so poor in compassion.

Ironically, the lack of empathy towards each subsequent wave of immigrants is highest among other, more veteran ones. Like college freshmen hazed by seniors, they catch a case of amnesia when it’s their turn to commit the unpleasant initiation rituals on frightened newcomers to campus.

In Mel Brooks’ comedy “History of the World Part I,” Moses is shown descending from Mount Sinai with three stone tablets in hand. As he declares, “I give you the Fifteen Commandments,” one falls and breaks, and Moses corrects himself, “er, Ten Commandments.” Jews, including the observant, find this funny rather than offensive. As we learned once again in Garland, Texas, Muslims do not laugh at jokes about Mohammed, the purported author of the Koran (as Moses is the author of the Torah). Two wannabe Jihadists with assault rifles and body armor were no match for an off-duty Texas traffic cop with a sidearm, but the incident might have turned into a massacre worse than the murder of the Charlie Hebdo staff in January.

Why do Jews as well as Christians–but not Muslims–laugh at jokes about the founders of their faiths?

The wave of Charlie Hebdo reached the US, where the French weekly’s survivors issue had not sold more than three hundred copies and all the US newspapers had refused to republish the drawings.

While in Texas an Islamist commando tried to hit a cartoon competition, at the PEN Club of New York it was the thing to boycott a prize to Charlie.

A high school teacher from the French town of Poitiers, Jean-François Chazerans, is under disciplinary proceedings for speaking in class and saying: “These rascals of Charlie Hebdo have got what they deserved”. It goes without saying that most of the high school teachers went out on strike when Chazerans was suspended and not when another colleague, “the Islamophobic” Robert Redeker went into hiding. Libération, the French leftist daily, defended the professor’s opinion.

Today’s lead story in The Wall Street Journal is about the result of its latest poll regarding Hillary Clinton. It says a lot about why she and the leaders of the Democratic Party must surely hold its core members in contempt. “Support for her among Democrats remains strong and unshaken.”

In the seven weeks since she announced her candidacy to be the next President of the United States and then virtually vanished from view, the news about her destroying private emails that should have been public records and the shenanigans of hers and Bill’s foundation have taken their toll.