Diarmaid Ferriter’s Outrageous Lies about Israel
Upon reading Mr. Ferriter’s opinion piece in the Irish Times on August 29th, I felt compelled to respond. His article can be read via the link below:
*The following response was sent to the Irish Times to review, but naturally I did not receive a reply.* It was also posted as a substack on this writer’s page: @jomahony04
He first dismisses Netanyahu’s statement that “there is no place for the weak” in the Middle East. Yet history shows why military strength in this region is essential. In the past four decades, the region has seen the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War, Lebanon’s civil war, massacres of Kurds in Turkey, the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, the brutal Syrian civil war, and ISIS insurgencies. Gulf nations spend billions on U.S. arms, but Israel’s defensive measures are uniquely demonised, as if Jews are not permitted to be strong.
Avi Shlaim is referred to as an Arab Jew, not the correct Hebrew term of ‘Mizrahi’. Shlaim’s claim that Netanyahu is a Jewish supremacist is simply baseless. During his cumulative 18 years as Prime Minister, Israel has thrived as a multiethnic democracy with full rights for minorities. Netanyahu signed the 2020 Abraham Accords, a historic normalising of relations with four Arab League nations and opening trade. In 1998, he signed the Wye River Memorandum, ceding large areas of land in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) to Palestinian Authority control. In 2014, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reported that Netanyahu had offered a Palestinian state on 90% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip, but President Abbas, in keeping with the impossible rejectionist stances of Palestinian leaders, turned down the offer.
When referencing Jabotinsky: he and other members of the Yishuv were absolutely reasonable in their aim of establishing Jewish militias – the consequences of not having armed protection from the brutality of Arabs were laid bare during the horrific Hebron Massacre of 1929.
Ferriter misrepresents the nature of Israel’s war with Hamas, claiming it targets civilians. Despite inflammatory comments from individual politicians – crucially not members of the War Cabinet – the IDF undertakes unprecedented precautions to limit civilian harm, including leaflets, phone warnings, and “knock bombs” to signal strikes. These measures sacrifice the element of surprise and increase risk to Israeli soldiers. John Spencer of the U.S. Westpoint Academy notes the IDF has achieved a militant-to-civilian casualty ratio of 1:1.5 – remarkable against an enemy that hides in civilian structures and uses human shields. Civilian deaths are tragic, but Hamas leaders openly state that such deaths serve their cause.
Moreover, Israel continues to supply Gaza with aid. Since October 2023, over two million tons have entered, coordinated by the IDF and COGAT. Hunger arises because Hamas and PIJ steal and hoard supplies, even posting videos of their actions – videos ignored by critics. If this conflict is genocide, as Ferriter suggests, then every war this century would meet that definition. Yet of course he doesn’t claim that. This label is reserved merely for the Jewish state defending itself. He is seemingly fuelling his own apocalyptic vision of the ‘evil Israelis’.
Ferriter repeats the falsehood that Israel deliberately targets journalists. However, a terrorist in a ‘Press’ vest is not a journalist. Take Anas Al-Sharif, the Al-Jazeera (Qatari state media) employee who the world mourned for 2 weeks ago. The fact that he appeared in countless photos with his arm around Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of 7/10, was seemingly irrelevant.
He also labels Jews living in Israel as “colonialists”, akin to white settlers in Australia, ignoring thousands of years of Jewish history in the land, long before Arabs ever arrived. Modern Israelis speak the same language, practice the same customs, and visit the same sacred sites as their ancestors did over 3,000 years ago. The survival and return of the Jewish people – unlike vanished ancient societies such as the Carthaginians or Trojans, is unique and truly miracle-like. Jabotinsky’s movement “Betar” itself was named after the final Jewish-Roman battle site of the Bar Kochba Revolt in 136 AD, underscoring this connection.
Ferriter grants tacit approval to Palestinian violence by calling it “resistance,” the very term used by Iranian-backed groups to justify massacres, kidnappings, and rape of both Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis. He even cites Ilan Pappé, a figure who dismisses objective facts in favour of “competing narratives” – a questionable source for a historian.
Finally, Ferriter laments the EU and UK for not restraining Israel. He further reflects the disturbing rhetoric (that is not used elsewhere) that the Israeli state is some sort of rabid, aggressive dog that must be brought to heel and disciplined.
Thankfully, the age of Zionism and a Jewish-majority nation state means that Israelis have the privilege to ignore those, like Ferriter, who would have Israel left defenceless against its barbaric foes.
Having written this response: I realised that what I truly lament is the fact that Ferriter is one of Ireland’s most well-known and respected historians. He appears constantly on TV shows, interviews and speaking events. Thus, when he writes a piece that is not only filled with so many staggering lies but also such vicious language regarding Jews defending themselves against actual genocidal enemies, the average reader will take his words as gospel, affirming their already hostile opinions of Israel. Week after week, the conflict consumes more and more space in the Irish Times, filled with narratives going only one way. The frenzy and pile-on against the Jewish state is unceasing.