“How many kids died today?” intoned the handwritten sign outside Dail Eireann, “Enact the OTB without delay,” echoing the cry from the 1960s, “Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many kids did kill today?”
How deeply, deeply stupid do you have to be to believe that the Occupied Territories Bill, which applies to the West Bank, could have any effect on Gaza? On Thursday, the 890th Israeli soldier to die in operations against Hamas was killed in Khan Younis; this is nearly one hundred more than the Free State Army’s death-toll in the Civil War, which lasted about as long. The tragedy of Gaza is not simply the slaughter of a hapless, disarmed people, but an unspeakable conflict of great complexity, as intended from the outset by Hamas. The OTB Bill will save not a single life, but it will make a lot of TDs very happy. For it is proof, yet again, of how noble Ireland is punching above its weight.
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