The mental gymnastics occurring inside the antisemitic political world are, well, mind-boggling.

The Republic of Ireland has been vocally accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza since shortly after October 7th. However, in a move that raises a few eyebrows, the Irish government is now seeking to broaden the definition of genocide in order for it to actually encompass Israel’s actions.

Irish Taoiseach (leader) Micheál Martin told the legislature he hopes to “broaden the criteria by which genocide is judged” in order to find Israel guilty. Apparently the current definition is “very narrow”.

Why would they need to change the definition of genocide if Israel was already committing genocide?

The answer is that Israel is not committing genocide, and the Irish government is admitting it. This approach is the same as changing the rules of a game to achieve a desired outcome because of not being able to win fairly. If Israel’s actions really constituted genocide under the existing definition, then there would be no need to broaden the word’s meaning.

The Irish government is playing a dangerous game here. Falsely accusing Israel of something they are not doing is libel. In fact, it’s an antisemitic blood libel. It seems the only purpose of this is to stir up hatred against the Jewish state, and it will likely increase antisemitism in Ireland and beyond.

Ireland’s actions are clearly antisemitic. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which is widely accepted internationally and was endorsed by Mr Martin’s Irish government, states that antisemitism includes: “Applying double standards by requiring of it [Israel] a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”

So, why is Ireland doing this?

Aside from being antisemitic, they need to justify their anti-Israel stance in order to not have their actions undone by their own laws. The Irish government also want to turn more people against Israel. It accuses Israel of genocide because it knows the word stirs up strong feelings in the public. If public opinion is against Israel then it helps the government to sell its anti-Israel foreign policy.

The problem for Ireland is that Israel isn’t committing genocide, and the Taoiseach knows this. The Irish government needs to bend the rules and its hoping the public is too naive to realise.

This raises massive moral dilemmas because if the definition of genocide is changed to fit the accusation, this does two things.

First, it undermines real genocides. The Holocaust, for example, was one of the darkest periods of human history. Six million Jewish men, women, and children were exterminated in death camps simply because of their ethnicity. There was such death and brutality that there are fewer Jews living today than there were before the Holocaust, some eighty years ago. Changing the definition would lessen the severity of this atrocity, as well as all other genocides. It would diminish the real suffering of real victims of real genocides.

Second, it undermines legitimate wars against terror. Changing the definition will mean that many common actions of warfare will suddenly fit the definition of genocide. Wars won’t be wars anymore, they’ll be ‘genocides,’ and this blurs the lines and confuses things (and as the Bible says, Satan is the author of confusion). The reality of the Hamas-Israel conflict is that Israel’s forces have caused far fewer civilian deaths in proportion to combatant deaths than nearly every other modern military on earth. And Israel has given more aid to the civilian population of its enemy during a conflict than any other country in history.

Do you see the dangers of Ireland’s antisemitism? They are willing to both water down real atrocities and undermine legitimate wars in order to demonise Israel.

So blinding is this antisemitic hatred that it makes people betray their own morality.

Antisemitism is an evil in this world that is dangerous not only to Jews, but to all mankind. What starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews. And as the Bible shows, what starts in Israel doesn’t end in Israel; it encompasses the world, both for good and bad.

We must continue to speak out against this hatred because, as Ireland has shown, it has taken over the highest echelons of power in this world. Antisemitism is being given a voice and legitimised because it is being spoken by world leaders and is not being properly challenged.

Maintaining the correct meaning of words is also important in order to properly convey the truth.

We don’t need to change the definition of antisemitism to apply it to the Republic of Ireland. The Irish government is living up to the definition. Ireland is being run by an antisemitic government that is cursing Israel. And as Genesis 12:3 warns, this is a very dangerous place to be.

It is disheartening to see the Irish government openly embracing anti-Israel rhetoric, with senior officials repeatedly condemning Israel while turning a blind eye to Hamas terrorism. Equally troubling is the apparent widespread public support for the Palestinian cause, manifested in the proliferation of Palestinian flags, murals, and street protests.

While some in Ireland have begun to push back, such as by painting over Palestinian murals with Irish flags, this appears to be more a reassertion of Irish national identity than a clear rejection of anti-Israel sentiment. The growing opposition to the current Irish government, which many in the country view as out of touch and increasingly radical, raises the question of whether this discontent will ultimately lead to a realignment of public sympathies toward Israel or deeper into the pro-Palestinian narrative that currently dominates the discourse. Only time will tell.

We need to pray for the Republic of Ireland, that they will not change the definition of genocide, that they will turn away from their Jew hatred, and that they will stop antisemitism from defining them.

UPDATE & APOLOGY: Please note we made a mistake on a previous version of this article which incorrectly showed an image of the island of Ireland that included Northern Ireland with the Palestinian flag imposed on the whole island. This has now been corrected to show only the Republic of Ireland. The illustration was taken from what the pro-Palestinian movement in Ireland uses in its protests and was not in any way intended to represent the views of CUFI, or imply our understanding of the views of the people in Northern Ireland. We apologise for this error and the offence it caused to our friends in Northern Ireland. This has now been corrected to accurately reflect the focus of the article, which is only referring to the Republic of Ireland.

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