Sanctimonious Irish

Cliona Campbell has an unlikely story. She's a student in Ireland who loves Israel (rare), and showed it by coming to work for two months on an IDF volunteer program, Sar El (Very rare for the Irish). After she went home she wrote a fine article about the experience.

So far so nice. Lots of her peers come on Anti-Israeli junkets, and are then lauded and celebrated when they get home, so it's nice to hear the opposite story. Opposite, also post-factum. As Ben Cohen tells, ever since she'd written about her experience she has been harassed by sanctimonious Irishmen who's hatred for Israel is greater than the the civility they were taught at home.

I once wrote that anti-Zionism in our time is more bistro than bierkeller - it is a phenomenon which manifests primarily among intellectual elites who see themselves as progressive thought leaders. I think that remains true; what is also true is that the boundaries between these two worlds overlap more and more, at the same time that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is endowed with an almost metaphysical power. That is why, when all is said and done, you are left with the spectacle of a young woman who visited just one of the hundreds of conflicts across the world returning home to a villain's welcome.

I am certain that many of Israel's forthright opponents would disavow the treatment meted out to Cliona Campbell. Good enough, yet not enough. This sorry affair illustrates that the western debate over Israel has gone way beyond concern with Palestinian rights into the realm of the irrational. The thugs picking on Cliona may be responsible for acting out the script, but they didn't write it.

(H/t Goeffrey)