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THE HEAD OF the Eurozone finance ministers’ group Jean-Claude Juncker has warned that Ireland is one of five countries which could be seriously affected by the Greek debt crisis, if that crisis isn’t carefully managed.
In an interview with Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung today, Juncker warned that contagion from a Greek default could spread to at least five other European countries.
“We are playing with fire,” he said.
Greek default “could prove contagious for Portugal and Ireland, and then also for Belgium and Italy because of their high debt burden, even before Spain.
Yesterday, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy climbed down from their earlier positions and agreed that Greece would need a second bailout package. The German and French leaders said they want it pushed through as soon as possible. Greece agreed a €110bn bailout deal with the EU, ECB and IMF last year but is expected to require a second bailout given the high cost of its borrowing.
Yesterday, Reuters reported that the credit ratings agency Moody’s warned it may cut Italy’s sovereign credit rating due to a likely rise in interest rates and the possible impact of ongoing fears over eurozone debt.
EU finance ministers are meeting tomorrow and on Monday to continue their discussions on the crisis and the EU’s 27 leaders are meeting for a summit next week.
- Additional reporting by the AP
She should be arrested and made an example of. Ignorant Irish, mis-informed on a “humanitarian” mission because they always support the perceived underdog. Laughable! The road to hell is paved with good intention. Israel is a nation of peaceful, intelligent people. Palestine is a pawn of Iran and Syria. They abuse Palestine and force the Israelis to defend themselves against CONSTANT attacks, even after giving up land! Read My Irish brethren as you are indeed misinformed. Not a simple matter at all. So simple minded people need not apply.
“So simple minded people need not apply.” Can’t agree more. Stop replying.
Arrested for peacefully protesting ! – Seamus your idea of “Israeli Democracy” – maintaining a Concentration Camp in Gaza of one and a half million human beings , in an area the size of a small town here !!!
While not allowing anything in or out without THEIR say so – Democratic my ass !
Sorry Eddie. The human corpus is a proven weapon. There is no such thing as a peaceful protest when you inject your physical body into the space of the body you are protesting against.
Shame on Israel
What is your first hand information on the situation Seamus? Enlighten us! There are undisputable human rights violations occuring there. Should this be tollerated?
She is such a stupid woman to even go there in the first place ! People backing a system that celebrates the suicide of children – and calling that “fighting the Israeli occupation” ! Give me a break!!
This report is factually incorrect. Dee Murphy is not being detained. She is being held for deportation following her refusal to cooperate with the Israeli authorities and return to the plane she had arrived in.
This isn’t the first time Ms. Murphy has pulled the passive resistance stunt. In 2006 she was carried into a police van after ‘going limp’ when approached by officers. Her ‘protest’ then was defacing the pillars of the National Museum of Wales with red paint. The charge then was suspicion of causing criminal damage.
Every country has the right to refuse entry to trouble makers and provocateurs and the Republic of Ireland also has similar provisions to Israel in section 3j and k of the Immigration Act 1999 for exclusion and deportation for the common good and/or considerations of national security and public policy. Dee Murphy attempted to enter Israel in full knowledge that if discovered she would be refused entry. She has no one to blame for her arrest but herself.
There is a common assumption in every country that entrance is conditional on obeying the laws and regulations of the land and instructions of the officers who administer it. Dee Murphey and the others openly declare they were there to flout those rules. What is there about Israel that makes ‘do-gooders’, who are neither citizens or residents, assume they have any rights to disrupt airports and hinder the work of the police by taking part in protests? Ireland would have refused them entry and held them for deportation if they had tried the same stunt at Shannon.
What a pity this group chose the liberal democracy of Israel for their shenanigans. Let them try it in Saudi Arabia for its oppression of women or Egypt for their oppression of Christians and she how gently they are handled.
Thank you! I’m so happy to see that there are level-headed people here! Thank you!
David- you are blind to what is occurring here.
Dee is being detained against her will in a scruffy smelly dirty prison (Givon in Ramle). She has commited no crime nor broke any laws. She merely stated on landing in Tel aviv that she would go to Palestine to meet families. Israel reacts by locking her up with many other elderly people for saying the same thing.
Yes Dee has taken nonviolent action in the past to challenge Israels insane policies in punishing Palestine. That is what democracy is about which Israel claims to be supporting.
Imagine Ireland wanted to punish USA. Imagine Ireland putting anyone in prison who flew into Shannon and stated their intention to fly onto New York. It would be insane just as Israels punishment of the people who flew into Tel Aviv.
Paul, I apologise for the state of the prison cell in Israel. The Hilton Hotel was probably overbooked. Ms. Murphy would not have had to suffer even a Hilton suite had she like most of the other passengers had returned to the plane (perhaps she arrived by EasyJet so I can understand her). Instead she carried out a prearranged plan to refuse to obey the instructions of the Israeli officials. Perhaps she staged a sit-in. She has form.
The stated and clear purpose of her stunt was to disrupt the airport, possibly shutting it down while causing Israel the maximum embarrassment in front of the television cameras. Enough of a reason to exclude her.
What gives her the right to demonstrate in my country or any country as she sees fit? I don’t have that right in Ireland as a non citizen. What has democracy got to do with it? Is she demanding to vote in the next elections?.
BTW your logic is completely faulty. If Ireland was in a state of warfare with the United States and declared no flights would be allowed to America,someone who flew to Shannon demanded to fly to New York would be refused entry. If they then refused to leave they would be deported. Never having spent time in an Irish gaol I can only imaging my living conditions while waiting to be marched in handcuffs to the next plane.
An Israeli protester has just arrived in Shannon.
Q: “What is the purpose of your visit”?
A: I’m here to protest your country’s policies, disrupt your airport and cause you worldwide embarrassment, if at all possible”.
Q: How do you intend to do that”?
A: “If allowed to leave this airport I will encourage the ethnic minority you are oppressing to destroy government property and hinder, abuse and assault your police and soldiers. Given half a chance I will join them in that activity”.
Q: “You do realise that there are laws and regulations that you have implicitly agreed to follow when admitted”?
A: You are an illegal entity which has no right to exist. I do not accept your sovereignty and will not obey any law or instruction I disagree with”.
QUICK TRIP, WASN’T IT?
The Palestinians already have a state,its called Jordan but the Jordanians won’t allow the Palestinians back in.
@Seamus – u probably live up north, are a unionist and think the British occupation of Ireland should still bs in force – until Israel recognizes it’s own history and creation 1947, it’s forced occupation of Palestinian land, it’s disgraceful continued displacement and land grab of legitimate Palestine lands and it’s unwillingness to recognize the rule of law when it’s suits their purpose -.for a country taking the full machine of war against a gang of youths with stick and stones they sure bleat loudly about how the world owes them compassion for the hitler era – there is no defending Israel’s actions no matter what the Palestinians do – but unless you lost your land, your country and your identity you have no idea – I doubt you are Irish – you big pretender – I bet you say the Irish soldiers in Lebanon are actually assisting Hamas you dumb sh1t
You’re embarrassing yourself. Oh, and you’re entirely wrong in your assessment of who I am and where I live. I know you need a cause to feel like your bag of flesh is actually worth something, so keep up the good work soldier. Oh, that’s yer ma calling… Enjoy yer hot supper and leave peacekeeping to the fully-formed brains.
You have a lovely turn of phrase Tommi “you dumb sh1t”
Tommii?? So anyone who defends Israel in Ireland is automatically a Unionist. What sad tribal beliefs you have.
And one major fact .You claim Israel in 47 stole Palestinian land? One major fact. You can’t steal land or occupy land belonging to a country which technically has never EVER existed.Never was a sovereign state.
If you deny Israel’s right to exist.I’m sure you’ll also deny Jordan,Pakistan and Bangladesh’s right to exist?? Or is it just Israels you deny?
” force the Israelis to defend themselves against CONSTANT attacks”
Yeah which for the average civilian its sticks and stones versus one of the biggest military forces. Don’t get me wrong I don’t condone that some are forced into becoming suicide bombers, but it’s often the last resort in the minds of some, of some being the key word.
Israel are the occupiers it’s their RESPONSIBILITY.
‘Even after giving up land’
They are occupiers of the land, and Palestine in the 90′s offered to take even less land than now just for recognition.
And when will the Palestinians even recognise Israels right to exist? You’ve left wing peace groups in Israel .Supporting Palestinian rights,But where are the Arab peace groups? The Arab left wing groups.Calling for the end of terror attacks,End of Rockets and recognition of Israel ?
Let us not be fools.There has never been a Gandhi in the Palestinian community. But there has been Abbas who wrote his thesis on Holocaust Denial.There has been the Grand Jerusalem Mufti Husseni who was a close personal friend of Hitler and Husseni spent most of WW2 in Berlin,begging Hitler to come to the British Mandate of Palestine and take the Jews that were there.
Once again nothing in this report that speaks about the up coming Palmer Report from the UN which will state.Israels blockade of Gaza to be entirely legal under international law.
Iran controls Palestine,Things might improve when Turkey invades Syria and thus takes control of Lebanon. It looks like it is only a few useful idiots of islam who want the situation in Palestine changed,certainly the Egyptians and Jordanians don’t.
So pretty much what you are saying is you believe in the conspiracy theory that Iran controls Palestine, that Turkey needs to invade Syria and control lebanon…
You also believe that only Islam wants the situation in palestine changed? You have no idea about Kairos Palestine or any of the vast orthodox communities here?
You are discussing what other countries want to see out of this situation yet you do not at all address what Palestinians want and need to come from this situation which is laughable.
Why can you Israel lovers not use the word which is the real cause of the problem between the two countries ZIONISM!
Hezb’allah
Niall,
Is that not a wee bit like saying that the problems in Northern Ireland are all down to Irish nationalism?
Ciarán: To these people, ‘Zionism’ does not mean Jewish nationalism, national liberation or Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish National Home, but is rather a catch-all term for various bad things, such as racism, which they don’t associate with Arab nationalism for some reason despite that ideology’s enormous death toll.
John,
Indeed….. despite the fact that increasingly from the 1930s on, Arab nationalism took the line that the only true Arabs were Moslems. Christians and (bizarrely, even more so) Jews were identified with the western colonial powers such as the UK and France.
Up to one million Jews were dispossessed and forced to leave their homes in Arab countries – ultimately having nowhere else to go apart from Israel.
Any comments on this issue, folks? Apart from a red thumb down?
Gary.Are you actually calling Iran’s financial and military support for Hamas a conspiracy theory?
No i am not calling the supplies from Iran to certain groups a conspiracy theory however to claim that Iran effectively ‘Controls’ Palestine is indeed a conspiracy and designed specifically to cause fear and hysteria without just cause.
When israel has full control of a state and is refusing to let people within that state to build there own dwellings this sounds a bit too nationalistic for my liking. Protesting against this injustice is something that has to be done in order for people to realise that a wrong against a minority has been done. The only way for peace in Israel is a understanding between the minorities and the majority until then protesting must continue.
Israel’s minority have full rights.Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the number of Christians has increased ,Not decreased. Israel has 20 per cent Arabs.,
Arabic is an offical language in Israel. The Islamic Calender is one of the Offical calenders of Israel.
Israel protects all religions and has numerous holy sites for Jews,Christians,Muslims,Druze and Bahai’s.
What about the unjustice of the Palestinians in Lebanon or Jordan. Who have offical apartheid laws against them.?
Israel wishes for the Palestinians to recognise them.They never will.There can be no peace with someone who can’t even recognise your right to exist.I am not talking about boarders,that will be decided in peace talks,but there must be recognition.Even Bibi the Prime Minister has said he recognises a Palestinian state. Yet not once has Abbas stood up in Arabic and said he and the Fatah recognise Israel. He hides behind the Palestinian Authority and says the PA (Which he is the largest party in) recognises Israel but we Fatah have not recognised Israel.Its double speach to fool the world.
@Barry – I don’t deny Israel’s right to exist, I dont agree with the principles to which they continue to stand by, the stealing of land today – and if it was OK to create a country called Israel on 1947, why not Palestine – what injustice would cause such a travesty – Israel was not a country, they had no land and the Palestinian land was not promised by anyone to anyone – it was stolen – take ur technical nonsense to bed with ya, if that’s ur best argument to support the Israel cause, you’ve already lost – just because the Israel propaganda machine is well funded and spoken in english doesn’t make it true – and what is your opinion on the newest country – south Sudan, oh that’s right, it’s not technically a country right?????
No but it went through the correct legal means to declare itself a state.Which the Palestinians have done??
So Tommii who owned the land before the “POMS”??
Do you oppose Jordans “occupations of Palestine” too?
Propaganda machine?? LOl thats it.Those pesky Jews speaking English.
What do the Palestinians have?? They are well able to spin their own stories and make their own up. Channel 2 in France. Was in turmoil only a few months ago.When it turned out footage of people being attacked by the IDF was all fake.And staged by Palestinian youth.
Quoting Barry “Do you oppose Jordan’s “occupation of Palestine” too?”
Hee hee….. good question!
No response??
Arafat was offered 95% of what he wanted [ Camp David] but he walked away.He knew that if he recognised Israel that he would be killed by Hezb’allah and Abbas is in the same boat.
She should face the full rigours of the law. Who does she think she is?
@Barry – oh yeah, that’s right, the poms occupied Palestine – handed most of it to the Jews after the Jews ran the blockade, and now the Jews are blockading it – sorry, it wasn’t a country – it was another occupied outpost of the colonial era – so every outpost and colonial outpost was considered similarily – lucky we had the balls to stand up and be counted otherwise we would have probably been told we were never recognized as a country either
All mouth and trousers tommii but you do not much in the way of history chum.
Clealy rather than hit reply.You prefer to make new statements.With the hope I wont recieve email notification and reply to you Irish Palestinian Solidarity Mantra’s. Which you clearly recite without any background knowledge. Like so many so called Pro Palestinians here.
Its all Israels fault. Yet when it comes to criticising how other Arab nations treat the Palestinians or indeed how the Palestinian government or Hamas treat Palestinians.They are silent.
Very different definition of solidarity in my eyes.
The so called Palestinians are simply a tool which are being used by the world to deny Jews their right to self determination in their ancient homeland
I recommend reading Kevin Myres article which best sums up the hypocrisy of the flotilla…. when are the doo gooders going to send aid ships to syria???
“Even reports on the [inter-Palestinian] reconciliation no longer [interest] the Arab viewer. According to certain TV channels, some Syrian protesters even called to expel Hamas from Syria, [after it] supported the Syrian regime against the protesters and the Syrian people. This is something that Khaled Mash’al and his supporters did not anticipate would befall [them]. In the past decade, many Palestinian [flaws] have been exposed, for instance [the fact] that the [Palestinian] cause has become a tool for bargaining, making profits, exerting pressures, and [gaining] influence. This has turned Hamas into part of the Iranian axis at the expense of the Arabs, who struggled alongside the Palestinians, whereas Iran never fired a single bullet at any Israeli target.
“That the Palestinian cause has become a tool for bargaining”
Goodness me,who would have thought that the arabs would abuse the cause.
Arafat never once said the same things in Arabic as he said in English and Abbas continues in the same fashion.Mind you the game would be up if he did.
‘De Telegraaf’ tells us that the Dutch newspaper chaps left the flotilla in Corfu when it was joined by Amin Abu Rashid the Hamas leader who fund-raises for the terrorist outfit. This “humanitarian” flotilla is not exactly above board.
http://www.telegraaf.nl/
I don’t recall seeing this mentioned in Irish newspapers
The UN is corrupt and inept and controlled by Robert Mugabe and his ilk.
Interesting comment Blessed Be. If the UN is corrupt and inept can we believe anything that they come out with?
this woman dee Murphy had no business going to Israel. She is a crack pot. Ireland should distance ourselves from people like this. Israel is none of our business or our problem.
Hi there. Can I just remind everyone not to copy and paste lots of text into the comments? If you’d like to refer to something, use a link. Thanks!
” the Palestinian cause has become a tool for bargaining, making profits”
Making profits? Our arab brethren profiting from the “cause” ? OH no,the shame of it
If you want to follow the story about the Irish woman in Israeli jail click on http://www.swanseapalestine.org/
We are the campaign supporting her.
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