Is the renaming of Dublin’s Herzog Park antisemitic?

I would hazard a guess that a former president of Israel had most likely visited the country at least once or twice…

I don't see any 'clearly not' . The car manufacturers and Hugo Boss in particular were happily in bed with the regime I'm alluding to, and so was the entire German military industrial pharmaceutical complex. All staffed by individuals who later claimed to have known nothing about the purpose of, for example, the ovens they produced and installed in the former Poland.

But we are dependent on the Germans and on modern Germany to a degree we are not dependent on the state of Israel, so cute hoors that we are, we turn a blind eye to the fact that hundreds of thousands of people who participated in genocide both within and outside of camps and both in and out of uniform rebuilt their country and got away with crimes some now apparently want to downplay if not forget altogether.

How about we blow up all the statues of the patriots we honour?

I'm not going to quote the rest of your post, because broadly speaking I agree with the sentiment, however, with specific regard to this part I can honestly say that I wouldn't object at all, because personally I've always considered "patriotism" to be an illness and a vice, and not in any way a virtue.

We publicly honour all sorts of people.

Every country in the west had a hand in slavery, the exploitation of colonies, the genocide of indigenous populations, the ruin of ecosystems - including the sainted Irish, who now see fit to preach so smugly at everyone else, now that we've become so enlightened and all.

Claim Herzog was still alive when the last Magdalene Laundry closed shop. We all stood idly by while that abomination went on, and the scandal of the industrial schools too. We have nothing to be proud of. We have no reason to believe we have a lock on public or private morality.

Irish people enslaved Africans in the US. Irish people fought for the Confederacy. Irish people joined the KKK. Irish people pelted rocks at Martin Luther King Jr in Chicago, and they rioted against school desegregation in Boston. Irish people took land from the indigenous people of America and NZ and Australia. They joined the British navy and army in droves to take and keep the empire. They joined the Indian Army and Civil Service. They emigrated to South Africa and lived comfortably there during apartheid. Hundreds of Irish engineers and their families lived and worked in Saudi Arabia in the 70s and 80s. The Irish middle classes made money during the Famine. We export beef and other agricultural products to Saudi Arabia and China.

How about we blow up all the statues of the patriots we honour?

How about we get off our high horses and pour a nice bucket of cold water over ourselves.

@mathanxiety

You asked -

Should we shun all things German?

Well clearly not. We don't. What we do though, and have done since, is shun the people and the regime responsible for the excesses of that State in the period you are alluding to.

Why should Israel and those responsible for Israeli excesses be spared the same?

No, it's nothing to do with "all Jews'.

Chaim Herzog is a former President of Israel, as State which is now widely held in contempt by other nations because of a litany of behaviour that stems back past Chaim Herzog's time. Hardly a surprise then that there is perhaps a reconsideration of whether it is appropriate to honour Herzog or not.

And by extension, it's OK to single out individual Jews to punish them for the transgressions of a country they don't live in and possibly have never even visited?

This is palpably ridiculous when the individual being discussed is a former Head of State of Israel, hardly someone who "never lived in Israel or possibly never even visited".

You don't want to accept that that is anti Semitism. But that is what it is

Again no. It's unquestionably anti-Israeli, and unquestionably anti-Chaim Herzog. It is not anti-Semitism.

There was a time when all Irish people living in the UK were pretty equally held in contempt and suspicion because of certain political circumstances, and iirc we didn't like that one bit

Of course, and this is every bit as reprehensible as holding all Jews in contempt and suspicion, but neither Israel, nor Chaim Herzog are "all Jews".

I don't think this is primarily about Chaim Herzog himself, it's about Israel

So all Jews alive or dead are all the same and all bear personal responsibility for current events? And by extension, it's OK to single out individual Jews to punish them for the transgressions of a country they don't live in and possibly have never even visited?

You don't want to accept that that is anti Semitism. But that is what it is.

There was a time when all Irish people living in the UK were pretty equally held in contempt and suspicion because of certain political circumstances, and iirc we didn't like that one bit.

Was he personally responsible for that?

What's next - ending Bloomsday? Because Jewish...

Should we shun all things German? Stop singing the Messiah at Christmas? Forbid all broadcasting of classical.music related to German composers? Boycott VW, BMW, Mercedes, Hugo Boss products, all German pharmaceuticals, all footwear made in Germany, stop teaching German in schools, etc., etc? Because, you know, the genocide...

Or maybe we can ease off the performative virtue signaling shite and remember that Irish Jews are as entitled to live peacefully in Ireland and be honoured for their achievements at home and abroad as all the rest of us are.

I don't think this is primarily about Chaim Herzog himself, it's about Israel.

Ronald Reagan was hardly faultless, and it's entirely reasonable to suggest Reagan was partly responsible for some of the USA's actions at the time he was US President.

Israel has a decades-long history of contempt for both International Law and Human Rights. This doesn't just stem back to Herzog's time, it predates it all the way back to the advent of the Israeli State. If you continually conduct yourself in similar ways to other pariah states, I don't think it's any wonder then that eventually other nations stop taking your claims to be an upstanding member of the international community on face value, and eventually they begin to view you and treat you in no different a way to they do those other pariah states.

Israel's recent excesses may have served to prompt this change, but it's not as if Israel's reprehensible behaviours only begun in the aftermath of the October 7th attacks. The period since is the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak.

It's worth noting that Ireland has been one of Israel's most strident critics of late. In my opinion it's only natural to expect elected governments to follow public opinion to a degree, and if there is a distaste in the population for honouring prominent members of what is regarded as a pariah state, I'd expect that to be reflected in the decisions then taken.

If the US fell into disrepute in the wider international community to the extent that Israel has, I expect there would likely be people also railing against the honouring or veneration of Ronald Reagan. Some still do anyway, just for slightly different reasons to those related to Israel.

Chaim Herzog has been dead since 1997. Are we really blaming dead people for the actions of their descendants?

By that logic, we should blame Ronald Reagan for Donald Trump’s actions.

Exactly the same thing, well done, one hundred points to Gryffindor. You've done me, destroyed me, ruined my arguments. Congratulations, you win. You're the best and tomorrow Israel will hold a little parade to celebrate your impeccable logic.

ps it's the genocide

You can't think of any reason why some countries might be reconsidering public honouring of prominent Israelis?

Probably the genocide

Let me spell this out for you -

Twice, you have stated that I "think it's ok to remove/change the name of this park".

I have said no such thing, or offered any opinion on the matter, so perhaps you should stop making assumptions about people's views when you have nothing whatsoever to base them on.

I wasn't aware I had expressed an opinion.

"all Jews... everywhere" is a bit of a leap from a specific individual who was a former President of Israel.