Ireland once again proves itself to be in the forefront of European anti-Semitism, putting its own economy in jeopardy.
This resource often reports on Israel’s drive to aggressively grow its trade with non-European countries because it is becoming abundantly clear that Europe, especially Western Europe, long one of Israel’s largest trading partners is becoming increasingly antisemitic and is constantly seeking ways in which it can reduce its business dealings with the Jewish State. These days, for example, the Irish parliament is considering a law that would make it illegal for Irish companies to do business with Israeli businesses and citizens who reside in the so-called “occupied territories”, meaning Judea, Samaria, and the eastern part of Israel’s capital city, Jerusalem. It should be noted that since Israel is one small country and since no border between exists between so-called “pre-1967” Israel and the territories that were liberated from Jordanian control as the result of the Six Day War, the proposed boycott de-facto applies to all of Israel. For example, it would make it illegal for Intel to manufacture in Ireland a product designed by Apple Israel if the latter employed an engineer residing in the city of Ariel in Western Samaria.
Because both Israel and Ireland are attractive destinations (though for different reasons: Ireland because of low corporate taxes, Israel due to its excellent workforce and amazing innovation) for American hi-tech multinationals, this law, if passed, would place these companies in the position of having to choose whether to flout the American law that forbids doing business in countries that practice discriminatory trade policies such as those promulgated by the anti-Semitic BDS movement and in addition to not be able to use Ireland as the manufacturing base for products designed in Israel, or simply abandon Ireland for another, equally attractive location, perhaps back in America, where corporate taxes have been recently drastically reduced. Since Ireland is a welfare state that pays for its social programs with revenues from hosting hi-tech manufacturing by major multinationals such as Intel and Apple, it is not likely that it will allow, at least this time, for the anti-Semitic legislation to pass and take effect. History teaches us though that committed Jew haters are quite willing to act on their hatred even if it is detrimental to their own interests, just like when Hitler gave direct orders that all necessary resources be diverted from Germany’s war effort to the extermination of European Jewry, even as Germany was in the final stages of being crushed by the Allies.
More details about the Irish dilemma between its own interests and those of its resident anti-Semites can be found at Bloomberg.