Alex Winston
Jerusalem Post, Dec. 19, 2024
“The current Irish prime minister and foreign minister, I think, perceive themselves as global statesmen striding the universe, whose very utterances everyone is hanging on.”
Over a decade ago, Michael D Higgins, then still future president of the Republic of Ireland, visited the town of Sderot with a delegation of Irish officials.
During their excursion to the municipality building for a meeting with Sderot’s mayor, the delegation members were informed that should the siren go off. They would have 17 seconds to get to the stairwell in lieu of a lower-floor bomb shelter.
Sure enough, a few minutes into the mayoral welcome, Islamist terrorists from the Gaza Strip fired a missile at Sderot and the siren sounded. As both hosts and guests made their way to the stairwell, Higgins was left rather flustered as he struggled to make his way to safety.
It would seem that Higgins learned little of the realities of life for Israel’s southern citizens. Since that visit, he has gone on to become president of the republic and a vicious critic of the Jewish state and its actions toward its Palestinian neighbors. ...SOURCE