Ireland's Anti-Israel Bill and the Muslim Brotherhood

by Lawrence A. Franklin • July 23, 2018 at 5:00 am

The Irish bill could have a negative impact on American companies with subsidiaries in Ireland: it is illegal under US anti-boycott laws to cooperate with a ban on commerce with Israeli settlements.
What is behind the proposed bill? One possible explanation is the prominent role played by Islamic institutions and organizations in Ireland, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood. There is evidence to suggest that the Muslim Brotherhood has established its European headquarters in the Emerald Isle.
Leaked US Embassy cables indicated that even some Irish Muslims refer to a certain mosque in Dublin as "Tora Bora," a cave complex on Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. One of the mosques imams, Yayah al-Hussein, originally from Sudan, is a member of Hamas, and many of its congregants are Bosnian and Afghan jihadists.

Leinster House in Dublin, Ireland, the seat of the Irish Parliament. (Image source: Jean Housen/Wikimedia Commons)

On July 11, the Irish Senate approved a bill criminalizing local companies that engage in commerce with Israeli firms based in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Introduced in the body's Upper Chamber by independent member Senator Frances Black, the bill passed initial muster, in a 25-20 vote with 14 abstentions. The Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill, 2018 would prohibit any import of goods or services from "occupied territories," with financial penalties of a quarter million euros in fines and up to five years imprisonment for violators.

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Erdoğan's Turkey: Unwanted in Arab Lands

by Burak Bekdil • July 23, 2018 at 4:00 am

"[Erdogan] does not even understand that Turks are not Arabs and Arabs have no intention go back to Ottoman rule." — Arab attaché.
Erdoğan in fact has succeeded in a rare achievement: making his country equally unloved by Muslim nations and Israel at the same time.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at an anti-Israel rally in Istanbul, Turkey on May 18, 2018. (Photo by Getty Images)

"We remain most curious," an Arab defense attaché told this author one evening, "how an intelligent man like [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan stubbornly fails to understand that his services are simply unwanted in the Arab world ... How he does not even understand that Turks are not Arabs and Arabs have no intention [to] go back to Ottoman rule." The Arab smiled and added: "Just because he champions the Palestinian cause does not make him a friend of Arabs."

In addition to his ideological kinship with Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups, Erdoğan has been more Arab than the Arabs when it comes to the Arab-Israeli dispute. Erdoğan has apparently been hoping to win allies in the anti-Israeli bloc and votes at home where Palestine is a "holy cause." He has repeatedly called on the Muslim world to unite against Israel.

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