Some positive news from Ireland, with the reality that unhinged Israel-hating President Michael D Higgins is no longer president, after serving two 7-year terms.
The bad news? The new President is a lot like the old President. Only worse.
Catherine Connolly, a far-left independent politician who has called Israel a “terrorist state” and has advocated for Hamas’s continued hold on power in Gaza, was elected Ireland’s 10th president on Sunday after a landslide victory over her rival, Heather Humphreys.
Connolly, who has refused to condemn Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, has frequently commented on the “genocide” in Gaza, as she calls it, and criticized “atrocities” committed by Israel. She told BBC News Northern Ireland during her campaign that Hamas was “part of the fabric” of the Palestinian people.
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Asked about Hamas in a BBC interview last month, Connolly said she was “reluctant to unequivocally condemn” the Oct. 7 attack, in which terrorists from Gaza murdered some 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.
“I come from Ireland, which has a history of colonization. I would be very wary of telling a sovereign people how to run their country,” Connolly said when asked whether Hamas should have a role in ruling Gaza.
“[Hamas] were elected by the people the last time there was an election. Overwhelming support for them back in 2006 or 2007. They are part of the civil society of Palestine. We’re reliant on them for figures in relation to the deaths,” she also said, referring to the death toll of the Israel-Hamas war.
In October 2021, Connolly asked the Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney if “indicating support for the Jewish character of the Israeli state” meant his ministry “agrees with the treatment by Israel of Palestinian communities in its attempts to accomplish Jewish supremacy.”
Throughout the campaign, Connolly had the support of Ireland’s major left-wing opposition parties, including Sinn Féin, the Irish Labour Party and the Social Democrats.
At least Higgins promptly condemned October 7, which is more than can be said for Connolly – whose mouth seems to look more yellow than the inside of that pot at the end of the rainbow:
Looks like Ireland traded one Israel-hater for another – only this one can’t even bring herself to condemn a massacre. The Emerald Isle’s moral compass must be spinning like a leprechaun on a barstool.
