The 85 Charlatan Club

Anthony McIntyre ☠ Yesterday Israel launched an attack on Iran.

Drogheda Stands With Palestine 7-June-2025

It reportedly killed a number of top nuclear scientists and military leaders, drawing comparisons with last year's attack which effectively decapitated the leadership of Hezbollah.

That a power that can strike with such lethal accuracy opts in Gaza to murder desperate men, women and children, famished by starvation as they assemble for food, underscores the genocidal intent Israel's Kapo leadership has crafted for Gaza. The deluded alone can seriously believe that if Hamas rather than the civilian population of Gaza was the target, the Kapos could not have gone about their business in the way they have conducted themselves in Iran or Lebanon, horrible as it is. Gazacide is not a strike against a military opponent but a very deliberate genocidal policy against an unarmed civilian population.

In the midst of this wilfully inflicted death and devastation, the society in which we live watched on earlier this week as the Michael Lowry Cabal that governs us shamefully backed the Israeli genocide over attempts to call time on it. 85 to 71 was the outcome of the vote. Sadly for the Gazans subjected to mass murder the Crooks Cabal voted down a cross party motion calling for a ban on the Central Bank of Ireland facilitating the sale of Israeli bonds. These bonds in the words of The Journal:

provide economic support to Israel while it conducts military operations in Gaza. and Ireland’s Central Bank currently approves the sale of these bonds in EU markets . . . The Central Bank estimated that Israel has raised between €100mn and €130mn from their sale.

That is €130 million towards genocide.

We can hardly expect the banking industry to do the ethical thing. That would be too much of a break with tradition for the bandit bankers where profit before people is the moving spirit. They are unelected and unaccountable to anyone we can trust. If we thought our government might be compelled to behave as something other than a posse of performative pricks, this week's vote has dispelled the myth.

Taosiseach Micheal Martin while calling the genocide by its name nevertheless decided to materially back the Israeli policy with his refusal to block the sales of Israeli war bonds. Taking cover behind legalese the Taoiseach has insisted that the Lowry anchored coalition cannot instruct the Central Bank to desist from selling the bonds as the bank is ostensibly independent under the law. That has not yet stopped a government bailout as the government robbed the poor to pay the rich. And as Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald had earlier pointed out:

We have over 20 pages of independent, robust legal opinion clearly stating that the bill is compliant with Irish law, European law and international law.

What more does the government need? Cojones.

In a week where even the bishops of Ireland have called for leaders to show courage, the government proved determined to do no such thing.

A piece in the Irish Examiner might explain why:

Last weekend, Al Jazeera reported a list of Israel’s largest trading partners. Most members of the top 10 were not surprising. In 2024, the USA was by far the most significant, alongside prominent allies the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. China features in third place. However, Israel’s second most significant trading partner shocked many observers: its most ‘vocal’ European critic, Ireland.

Not many in the Dublin government would claim to be evangelical Christians, but they could easily outbid the bible bashers in the hypocrisy stakes.

The rain in Drogheda today is even worse than last Saturday. Yet if we don't go out on West Street in less than half an hour's time, and stand in it for the purpose of expressing solidarity with those facing a metal rain, against which no umbrella is of the slightest use, we will only encourage our execrable government to carry on pretending and performing.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.