Middle East or Eden?

I heard the news today, oh boy. Another Arab strapped a bomb to his body and walked into a café and blew it and himself and several diners to Kingdom Come. Just another average day.

Yeah, I know – it seems so far away. But it’s not. It could be coming to a street near you very soon. Or you to it. But more of that anon.

You see, things are worse there now. Since Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister, the settlers have grown more militant and the army has become more brutal. And in response, the Palestinians have become more extreme.

Peace was never going to be easy there, but 2001 has made it ever more difficult. It is more violent and more polarised than for fifty years, since the first modern war immediately after the establishment of the Israeli state.

Nobody is innocent in this. Both sides have their mordant histories, their annals of victimhood, and both sides have suffered terribly. But nothing justifies blowing up a restaurant full of innocent bystanders, as we know only too well here. Equally, nothing justifies the policy of assassination practised by Israel, as well as the murderous responses made against rioters.

So, now there is a significant threat against Israeli diplomatic offices elsewhere in the world. What next? Assassination of Palestinians in Paris?

It’s hard to say where this will end. On one side you have a people who believe they are God’s chosen people, destined to enter the kingdom, and who believe that one takes an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and one smites one’s enemies hip and thigh like Gideon. The others also believe in paradise, and that they will go straight there if they die in a holy war.

So who’s got anything to lose?

Well, we have, of course. Their war will spill over, not just locally into Lebanon and Egypt and Jordan, but possibly into Greece and Cyprus, and to any neighbourhood in which there’s an Israeli mission.

It’s not a pretty thought.

And behind it there’s the spectre of an all out war in the Middle East. If that breaks out, the sky’s the limit. It could even go nuclear. Certainly, the effect on the world economy would be pretty devastating, worse than the 1970s.

It’s reminds us of just how bad things can actually get, as we contemplate the bleak vista of Northern Ireland. There, things fall apart. The centre cannot hold.

The impasse over policing seemed like it was the last straw. But Norn Ir’n has ways of surpassing itself. Now it’s the incredible scenes outside Holy Cross primary school in Ardoyne.

Now I sympathise with people who are threatened and put under pressure, and I have no doubt that some of the local Protestants have been harassed, just as Catholics have too. There has been ethnic cleansing all across Northern Ireland for three decades, and it’s unlikely to have stopped since the Good Friday agreement was signed.

But setting sights on a bunch of four and five year olds is just untenable. Furthermore, it has enormously damaged the unionist image around the world… which wasn’t that great to begin with. I mean… the sight of fanatics yelling and spitting at children ..

But of course, they are not the only bigots on this island. A few honourable voices have been raised regarding the disgraceful treatment meted out to two Dutch footballers by sections of the once honourable Irish soccer fans. Their crime? To play for Glasgow Rangers.

And why would they be booed for that? No reason, except that some people on this island have a problem with Rangers. I have no doubt they are Celtic fans, and I have argued against this ugly connection in the past. Why should we import sectarian bigotry from another country? Why should people here feel an affinity with this dated, fascistic allegiance? This is as bad as the British National Party.

Yes, it’s true that these boors might be so-called fans who came to Dublin from Northern Ireland or even Scotland, but what the fuck about that? They are still bringing disgrace on Irish football. And by the way, some of them threw a banana at Numan as well. Racists too.

So who’s going to start challenging this cancer before it destroys Irish soccer?

The shame of it is that all this happened on one of the great days for Irish football, one of the heart in the mouth, oh fuck don’t let them score, go-Roy-go, oh yes oh yes oh yes days of Irish football.

On a day like that, there shouldn’t be a sour taste in the mouth, but there was.

But enough of that. Unless Portugal come a cropper against Estopnia (no chance!), we’re in the play offs, which means…

Hell’s bells!! Not the Middle East?