That’s what so many in Ireland wanted to talk about when Trump visited the Old Sod, to protest about, to wax indignant about, to scream about. Not Iran’s economic war against its Arab neighbors and the West. Not Russia’s war against Ukraine. Not the Houthis blocking the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. Not global warming and the floods and fires it generates. Not a runaway AI that, several experts have just warned us, could wipe out all of humanity within a decade. None of that. No, it was all about the “genocide” the colonial-settler apartheid state of Israel is committing.
Here’s how Al Jazeera reported from Ireland the day before Donald Trump arrived: “‘Majority do not welcome him’: Trump heads to Ireland amid fury over Gaza,” by Laura O’Connor, Al Jazeera, September 11, 2026:
Donald Trump is set to arrive in Ireland on Saturday, but most Irish people aren’t happy about it.
A recent poll by the Sunday Independent and Ireland Thinks reported that 69 percent do not support the US president’s visit.
“Thousands of us will march on Saturday because we refuse to normalise a man who has facilitated genocide,” Sean Radcliffe, an economics undergraduate student at Trinity College Dublin, told Al Jazeera.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin “should say it clearly, firmly, and publicly: the United States is facilitating genocide,” added Radcliffe, who is a leader of the student body’s Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign….
And when Trump met Irish President Catherine Connolly, can you guess what she said to him? “War and genocide can never be accepted.”
What is it with the Irish these days? Is it something in the water? Last I looked, the Liffey had not been poisoned with psychotropic drugs, but one never knows, do one?
Let’s go over that “genocide” charge one more time, shall we?
In 1967, when Israel took over Gaza, it had a population of 360,000. Today its population is two million. Is that “genocide”?
During the current war against Hamas,, the IDF has waged a tremendous campaign to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. It has dropped millions of leaflets, sent millions of text messages, and made millions of robocalls, all in order to warn civilians away from sites soon to be targeted. It has also employed the “knock-on-the-roof” technique to alert people living in apartment buildings to leave for their own safety. Is that “genocide”?
During the war in Gaza, the IDF has facilitated the entry into the Strip of 182,000 tons of humanitarian aid — food and medicine. It has also prevented Hamas, whenever it could, from stealing that aid, so that it could reach its intended recipients. Is that “genocide”?
Israel has transported children from Gaza who needed specialized medical care and delivered them to Jordan. Is that “genocide”?
And now for some arithmetic:
According to Hamas, 73,500 people have died in Gaza during the war.
According to Israel, about 25,000 Hamas combatants have been killed.
That means there were 48,500 non-Hamas deaths. Now we need calculate how many of these 48,500 deaths were non-combat related.
Before the war, in Gaza an estimated 7,700 to 8,400 total baseline deaths per year resulted from all non-conflict natural causes (such as age-related illnesses, non-communicable diseases, and normal baseline rates of disease or accidents). So, it is reasonable to assume there have continued to be about 8,000 deaths per year, or 667 per month. During the 35 months of the war, from October 2023 to September 2026, 23,345 (667 x 35) people in Gaza died of non-combat related causes.
So of the 48,500 deaths of non-Hamas people in Gaza, 25,515 (48,500 minus 23,345) died as a result of the war.
How do those numbers stack up against other wars?
The UN has calculated that in all the wars fought since World War II, the civilian-to-combatant ratio was on average 9:1. In Afghanistan, the Americans brought that down to 4:1, and in Iraq, to 3:1.
In Gaza, 25,515 civilians died as a result of the war, and 25,000 Hamas combatants also died.
The civilian-to-combatant ratio in the Gaza war, then, is 25,515:25,000, or about 1:1, a figure that no other military In the world has come close to achieving.
Which leads me to ask again what I asked at the beginning of this piece: Genocide? What genocide?
Hugh Fitzgerald says
In fact, I left ont another statistic that would have made my case even stronger:the number of Gazans killed by rockets and missiles launched by Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad. Such deaths cannot be attributed to Israel. For example, the rocket that anded in the parking lot of the Al-Ahi Hospital, and that killed anywhere between 300 (US estimate) and 571 (Gaza Ministry of Health) , was the result not of an IDF weapon but of a rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It has been estimated that 20% of the rockets and missiles fired by the terrorists in Gaza landed inside the Strip, and many hundreds, if not thousands, of Gazas died from those weapons.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
Al-Ahli, not Al-Ali, Hospital. Sorry for that and several other typos..
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Hugh
From your main article
I doubt that AI is going to do that. W/ imploding birth rates worldwide except in Africa, we will go extinct all over the place. Also, as the Boomers everywhere die out, Western countries will no longer be economic magnets for those people, since the people w/ the money will be gone: Gen X’ers, Millennials and Zoomers are pretty much broke, and in no position to even help the reducing number of people we have, much less others
Your typos – I suspect a lot of them may have been introduced by the AI that is now embedded at either Operating System or browser levels in computers. You needn’t be the one to apologize for them – let the AI do it 😈. This won’t be the technology that makes us extinct
Crusader says
Excellent points. Who knows how many deaths Hamas caused on their own citizens and for them, as we know, their reward is awaiting them as martyrs. So, in reality, how many of those deaths were actually attributed to the honorable IDF. Each death gets them more victim narrative points to stick it to Israel. Any human with a half open mind can look into the facts and see the truth that Israel does the best it can with this devastating situation. The propaganda campaign against Israel is absolutely stunning. As a German who was raised to be keenly aware of the horrors of Nazism, to see anti-semitism being normalized to the extent it is, is beyond belief and is like waking up in an Alice-and-Wonderland nightmare where Jews are being accused of being Nazi’s by the Nazi’s themselves.
Daniel Bielak says
As someone who is ethnically Jewish, my heart is warmed by you.
Daniel Bielak says
Crusader, in my previous comment I should addressed you by name.
Stive says
I don’t know how much fluoride is put into Ireland’s water, and the amount is important, but years ago the E.U. stopped fluoride in the water system, except Ireland! Ireland drinks fluoride unlike Europe now. Of course the Irish catholic church may be the most antisemitic church on earth so maybe a role there too ?
ploome says
The teaching of contempt;: Christian roots of anti-Semitism
by JULES. ISAAC
On June 13, 1960, the French Jewish historian Jules Isaac had a private audience with Pope John XXIII. Isaac, the former Superintendent of Public Instruction in France, had after the First World War sought to use history textbooks to promote peace between France and Germany. Nonetheless, his family was killed by the Nazis during the Shoah. Starting in 1941, while in hiding in Nazi-occupied France and continuing after World War II ended, Isaac devoted himself to researching the origins of cultural and religious antisemitism. During his meeting with John XXIII, he summarized in a portfolio his research into the history of the Christian “teaching of contempt” for Jews and Judaism.
This meeting is generally credited with being a major impetus for the pope’s decision to direct Cardinal Augustin Bea, on September 18, 1960, to draft a declaration on the Catholic Church’s relationship to the Jewish people for the upcoming Second Vatican Council. This was the genesis of what would become Nostra Aetate. The following notes were written by Jules Isaac shortly after the audience. They were published in The SIDIC Journal 1968/3 and are available courtesy of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion.
and
The Religion of Jesus the Jew
Vermes, Geza
Edmund Carey says
This may not be a very original observation, but, I think the Irish are missing their Catholicism. It has shrunk to a midge in the last three generations. Their new religion is hatred of Israel, and they don’t have any theorists or philosophers or theologians yet for that one. No “Hate-on-Israel” Thomas Aquinases. Consequently their discourse on the subject is somewhat crude, and based in impressions and emotions, not facts.
How hard was it to predict that if the Jewish people ever acquired a country for themselves it would quickly become the most hated entity in the world? But it’s the self-righteousness entailed on that attitude that is astonishing, and grotesque.
Wellington says
Edmund Carrey: I agree with what you wrote but I would add that the Catholic Church en masse, and especially when considering most of its present hierarchy, including the last two Popes, is missing its Catholicism.
Yes, it’s gotten this bad and with all kinds of deleterious consequences for the West. This is made all the more bitter because for centuries Roman Catholicism was a bulwark of Western Civilization. Indeed, without Roman Catholicism the West would have never become the West as we know it, especially when considering matters from late antiquity to and through the Renaissance.
Wellington says
Ireland rarely misses an opportunity to disappoint. If the British Empire, with faults to be sure but still the most decent empire in history, had first and foremost depended on its being established by the Irish instead of the English, it never would have been established at all.
Kepha says
Had the Irish gone Protestant in the 16th century, they’d be vying with the Scots to run England’s empire–Egland understood as the true center of a unified British Isles entity. And I’m not being facetious. The Scots contributed an incalculable benefit to the British realm and, beyond, the whole Anglosphere.
An observation: the Irish today are going through what the Germans went through in the 19th century–namely, a not-so-subtle de-Christianization. For the Germans, it was the birth of the higher critical approach to the Bible and a critical philosophy which, as Engels clearly noted, was everywhere a critique of Christianity. For 21st century Ireland, it seems to be the exposure of the RC church’s moral failings (and never you mind that state institutions from public schools outwards also exhibit similar failings and crude attempts at cover-ups).
Granted, this may be my God-bless-King-Billy Protestant prejudices showing, but, for all their charm, the Irish launched a nationalism and post-nationalist ideology has gone to bed with some pretty unsavory partners. The Easter Rising was carried out with guns supplied by Seine Majestaet Kaiser Wilhelm II. The IRA throughout the Troubles in Ulster was supported by Moammar Qaddafi and Yuri Andropov’s KGB. During the First Gulf War, Sadam Hussein approached the IRA to kill Western diplomats and dependents–although I’ll allow that the IRA thought twise when it considered how a murdered US diplomatic dependent and a captured terrorist from Armagh would play in Boston and NYC.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
And one more thing to remember: Irish President Eamon De Valera visiting the German envoy’s home in Dublin to express, in writing, his condolences on the death of Adolf Hitler. After such knowledge, what forgiveness?
Wellington says
I don’t deny the Scots role in the establishment of the British Empire but it was the English, by far, who did the “establishing” first and foremost.
Taffy says
A message to the Irish of Ireland: Shut up and drink your beer!
James Lincoln says
According to the excellent feature article by Hugh Fitzgerald:
“During the current war against Hamas,, the IDF has waged a tremendous campaign to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. It has dropped millions of leaflets, sent millions of text messages, and made millions of robocalls, all in order to warn civilians away from sites soon to be targeted. It has also employed the “knock-on-the-roof” technique to alert people living in apartment buildings to leave for their own safety. Is that “genocide”?”
Yes, the IDF did all of those things and are still hated 10/10.
If they hadn’t done all of those things, the degree of hatred toward the IDF would still be the same 10/10.
But the IDF chose to do the “right thing” anyway – knowing that they would not be hated any less…
Taffy@binkmail.com says
Yes, if the IDF wanted to, they could show Hamas what indiscriminate attacks with mass death looks like, but they chose not to.
Kepha says
While I believe it’s a pity that the Israelis don’t recognize the Messiah, I note that from start to finish, the IDF has been more surgical in dealing with threats to Israel’s existence than most other militaries on the planet. They faced a provocation that would’ve justified a 12th century Mongol-style response.
Hamas-ruled Gaza always reminds me one way or the other that it danced in the streets on 9/11/01. It disgusted me to the umpteenth degree when its fighters gleefully flooded the net with their abduction, rape, and fouling of an Israeli woman. They have created a truly despicable corner of out sorry, sin-soaked planet.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Since 69% of the Irish are w/ the Balestinians, it’s probably time that as Americans, we stop observing St Patricks day. Let Irish-Americans observe it all they want, but that is no reason to host the president of Ireland in Washington on every anniversary. Incidentally, if it is the #1 day for the Irish, how is it that he isn’t swamped in the Irish celebrations of it, but rather has to come to the US to top off the celebrations here?
Andra says
The true genozides right now take place in Europe.
Invaders are trafficked into the European countries by their own governments. The cultural heritages are abandoned in order not to enrage the invaders.
Traditional kitchens are replaced by halal. The homelands get filled with aggressive Muslims, so that Europeans must leave their homes..
And last but not least especially the young generation gets beaten up, raped and massacred by the invading troops.
tgusa says
Women in the West such as Catherine Connolly have gone off the rails regarding islam. The exchange below from the Melvin Udall character in the 1997 movie, As Good as It Gets, describes them very well.
When asked by a receptionist how he writes women so convincingly, he responds: “I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability”
.
tgusa says
“In Gaza, 25,515 civilians died as a result of the war, and 25,000 Hamas combatants also died.”
Just for comparison. In Ireland there have been over 60,000 abortions since legislation introducing abortion on demand came into effect in 2019. That makes the death toll in Ireland larger than the death toll in Gaza and it didn’t take a war for that to be achieved. Spare me the moral outrage Catherine as you have no standing.
somehistory says
“IDF arrests terrorist who was planning Rosh Hashanah shooting attack”
“Israel Defense Forces soldiers over the weekend apprehended a terrorist in the Hebron area of Judea who was planning a shooting attack against Israeli civilians during Rosh Hashanah, the military said on Monday.
Terrorist Abd al-Rahman intended to carry out the attack “in the immediate time frame,” according to a military statement.
The arrest operation was guided by the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet), the army said.”
Too bad that there is no “terroristsicide.” That’s the only ‘genocide” which would be acceptable.
some anon person has paid for “crooks”….the one who was going to murder Mr. Trump…to be cremated.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/idf-arrests-terrorist-who-was-planning-rosh-hashanah-shooting-attack/ar-AA2chq2J?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=6aa9f924200a42df964cb4876dd75ae2&ei=32
Nan says
I noticed that President Trump only visited with Connolly for a few minutes, then did the review of troops without her. Perhaps she was too traumatized by his foreign policy regarding Israel. All I know is that Ireland will lose its sovereignty because of its love for Islam. Ireland should strive for unity and leave Gaza and Israel for the grownups.
crown says
“ All I know is that Ireland will lose its sovereignty because of its love for Islam.”
Good.
Daniel Bielak says
Excellent, and needed, summary, Hugh.
And it should be noted that the casualty numbers presented by Hamas—an ideologically genocidal Islamic anti‐Jewish terrorist organization which tells lies as a matter of course—are most likely falsely inflated.
Walter Sieruk says
The ones who should really have of war crime of genocide warrants out against them, for the genocide are the jihadist chiefs of Hamas and their Muslim terrorists murderous stooges For Hamas started this war in October 7th 2023 and then had its Muslim terrorists hide behind children using them as human shield.
First, this is because they are top dogs of a violent and deadly jihad organization, that reveals in its charter that its intention to the commit worldwide genocide against the Jewish race.
Second, the heads of Hamas used its jihadist stooges invade Israel on October 7, 2023 to commit mass murder as well as other vile and heinous atrocities against the Jewish people.
Furthermore, the Muslim despots of that hostile Islamic regime of Iran should also have arrest warrant sent out for them. This is because they had sent many deadly weapons to Hamas and encourages those Hamas top dogs to launch a jihadist invasion of Israel murdering her people.
Walter Sieruk says
It’s Hamas that is actually guilty of attempting genocide that is against the Jewish people.
It should never be forgotten that Hamas started this current war of October 7th. 2023 when it had its Muslim terrorists invade Israel and engage in many of the most horrendous Islamic atrocities against the peaceful and unarmed Israeli citizens. It’s in the charter of Hamas that it doesn’t want to stop a killing all Israeli’s, it wants commit genocide against all Jews worldwide.
Furthermore, Hamas in, a sense, is also committing a type of genocide against the people of Gaza, because it hides its jihadists bases and weapon centers in places as hospitals and schools that have children in those buildings, using very young children and older children as human shields.
That is despicable, then when the Israeli military strikes jihadist and military based, the propagandists of Hamas yell out to the Western news media “Look the Israelis are murdering our children.
So it’s Hamas really guilty of genocide.
Walter Sieruk says
The real war criminals isn’t the soldiers of the Israel Defense force . It’s the ,top dogs,, chiefs of Hamas who had their Muslim terrorists stooges murderous actions of attempted of genocide, against the peaceful Jewish citizens of the State of Israel on October 7th 2023.. Likewise, the ICC would also issue arrests warrants against those Muslim despots of Iran, who send Hamas and Hezbollah with deadly weapons, Iran’s proxy, , for those dangerous and deadly jihad entities have every intention of committing genocide against the Jewish people.
Furthermore,those charge of “genocide’” against Israel are as absurd as they are also false. For it’s those jihadists of Hamas who committed action of attempted genocide against the Jewish people.
For it was Hamas that stated that current war in the Middle East by murderously invading Israel, on October 7,th , and now has its jihadists hide their terror and weapon centers among civilians ,including children in Gaza and then have the gall to blame the Israel Defense Force when civilians are killed.
For it was Hamas using its Muslim terrorists then attempted to commit genocide against the Jewish people, then when event further in their horrendous evil and the by kidnapping many Israel’s young females and raping thern. .
Those Hamas jihadists are so cruel and vicious that they even took Jewish infants and burned them to death while they were still alive.
In spite of all those facts, some despicable men of the UN wants to have acquittal for Hamas from all is wicked jihad terrorism and release its jihadists from the monstrous Islamic evil that they have so vicious committed and are very guilty of, and yet condemn Israel for striking back and Hamas in self- defense. This is absurd and wrong. Very absurd and wrong.
To add to this libelous and slanderous of false charges of genocide are made against Israel about it heads of government and the IDF.
Such charges are as absurd as they are also wrong. Those changes are very absurd.
Related to this, the Bible informs its reader that “Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent – – the Lord detests them both.” Proverbs 17:15. [N.I.V.]