WILL the Israelis  ever escape the label of  genocide enthusiasts? Probably not, but that won’t worry them. Most of us like to have a reputation that allows others to think kindly of us, but Israelis have a thick skin. They  also has an appetite for blood that would match any vampire.

In Gaza, they slaughtered somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 people. That’s a difficult number to picture, so think of it in terms of the Omagh bomb. Take the horror of Omagh on that day in 1998 and repeat It in full, day after day, seven days a week, for over six years. “But nobody would be insane enough to slaughter 29 people every day over a six-year period!” you say. Well, over a three- year period Israel did that to innocent, helpless Palestinians. It’s not that they did it at a rate of 29 per day. The Israeli death machine slaughtered an average of 70 people per day.

And as you no doubt are aware, Israel has now moved on to fresh killing fields. This year alone Israelis have killed near to 2,000 people in Lebanon. That’s an average approaching 285 a week.

Any criticism of Israel is either ignored or countered by the shout of “Anti-semite!” Please. It’s possible to be horrified by the gas chambers of the Second World War and also horrified at the sight of the people of Gaza and Lebanon being  butchered.

Even a swift look at the Geneva Convention will show that this kind of mass killing is a war crime. And war crimes in the past have been punished. The famous Eichmann trial of 1961 resulted in the conviction of Adolf Eichmann for his part in the deportation of hundreds of innocent people to death camps during the Second World War. He was executed in 1962.

The 1994 slaughter in Rwanda resulted in the Rwandan Prime Minister and his chief planner both being given life sentences.

The Balkan wars of the 1990s were followed with life sentences for the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic. The Serbian Prime Minister Slobodan Milosevic would very likely have been given a life sentence except he died during his trial. 

But do you think there’ll come a day when Benjamin Netanyahu will face a court and life imprisonment? If you believe there is, I have £100 that says you’re misguided. Netanyahu will never serve a day in prison for the horrors he has visited on so many people.      

And that recent expletive-heavy outburst  by Donald Trump wasn’t directed at the Israelis who were and are bombing Iranian civilians round the clock. It was directed at the Iranians for daring to block the Strait of Hormuz.

The world should congratulate Iran. Not because of their refusal to let ships pass through the Strait, but because they’ve shown there are means other than a military response to bring a bully to his knees. Israeli and American politicians have been totally out-played.

At home. the Irish farmers and hauliers know how to hurt a government. Faced with street blockages, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan talked immediately of sending in the Gardaí and the Irish army. Having soiled their reputation, the Dublin government then capitulated and granted much of what the desperate blockaders were seeking.  

At times like this, I think of Bertie Ahern, despised and mocked now for his time as Taoiseach. But one thing Bertie knew was the benefits of getting around a table with your opponents. Micheál and Jim lack that power to engage, or if they have it they seem unable to use it.

Pssst, Micheál and Jim:  there are  by-elections next month in Dublin Central and in Galway West. Maybe light a couple of candles and hope the electorate have amnesia.