Claims to Eire

Quora Policy allows someone making a query to post an answer to their own question.
We (i.e. YD) asked,

"Is the Irish claim to Ireland more valid than the Jewish claim to Judah and Samaria?"

We (i.e. YD) in effect wanted to defend the Jewish Right to the Land of Israel including especially Judah and Samaria. These regions are the Homeland of the Jewish People. We chose to do this through the Irish for personal reasons and since the Irish often interpose themselves against us on behalf of the Palestinians. The question was intended to create a certain defensiveness in those we were speaking to and that is what it may have done. What applies to the Irish however is ALSO pertinent to all others. Below are a selection of replies we received together with our own comments. Anyone wishing to see the replies in full should go to the Thread in Quora.

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 1. Quora Moderation Remarked:

This question should be phrased with neutral and sincere language
This question's wording makes it seem like a joke, or intended rhetorically to make a statement, rather than looking for helpful answers. It should be rewritten to be a neutral, non-leading question. See Quora's policies on questions.

Comment of YD:
In other words, we are being told:

The Jewish claim to exist in Israel can be seriously contested but the claim of others cannot.

Nevertheless we tired to change formulation of the question to:

"Is the Jewish claim to Judah and Samaria less valid than that of the Irish to Ireland?"

This proposed change however appears to have been unsuccessful.

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2. Michael Collins quoted the Jewish-Mormon comedienne Rosanne Bar who in reaction to what she considered to be Irish Anti-Semitic attacks on Israel said that Ireland should be given back to the British.

Comment of YD: 
 In Northern Ireland there are Irish Catholics and Protestants descended from a mixture of Irishmen and Scotsmen. The Irish Catholics themselves are of the same ethnic mix as the Protestants albeit in a slightly different proportion.
 Extremists on both sides claim exclusive rights to the area.
Some of the Protestants identify with Israel and some of the Catholics carry PLO flags at football matches and shout slogans against Israel.
 This conflict has been hopefully resolved BUT for a long time previously:
Irishmen of similar ethnic origins and similar culture and from the same socio-economic backgrounds, speaking the same language, were killing each other over the zoning of supermarkets and carparks.
 Now they want to teach the Israelis how to make peace!
The Jews in Israel are faced with a foe that has the backing of most of the world and wants to exterminate all Jews for the sake of doing so.
 We would give them all the carparks they like but for us and them that is not what the conflict is about.
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3. Fionnula MacLiam

people born here, and living here.

Comment of YD: 
The same reply was made in some way or other by all the other respondents. The experience of the Christians in the Middle East belies this argument. In Palestine and the Middle East there was once a large community of Christians especially Catholics and Greek Orthodox and offshoots from them. They had been in the area since long before the Muslims came out of Arabia, Egypt, and Africa. The Muslim Arabs have in effect recently driven most of them out. A few remain. The rest have gone elsewhere and successfully resettled in other places. No-one cares about them. The Irish UN contingent while in Lebanon even boasted of having been prejudiced against them and in favor of the Muslims. Personally I too do not care and will not pretend to do so. Nevertheless their case and that of others shows that longitude of settlement is not taken as a serious claim except in the case of Israel.
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 4. Eamon O'Kelly

No parallel exists since no-one else claims the Republic of Ireland. In the past there were claims by Ireland for Northern Ireland but this has been resolved.

Comment of YD: 
 If someone else were to claim Ireland you would not have much to resist them with. Ecological changes in Europe or some kind of disaster could conceivably create a situation that would raise the question. Beware of Germany.

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5. Grainne McKeown

the Irish claim is not a contested one though. So there's no need to justify it. Nobody else wants it. There's no debate.

Comment of YD: 
 There is no debate about Ireland for the time being. There is a debate about Israel including Judah and Samaria. Ireland has chosen to involve itself in this and be against Israel.
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6. Diarmuid O'Briain

The Irish are a race of people from Ireland, the Jewish are a religion that consists of people from all over the world.

Comment of YD: 
The Irish in Ireland live on land their ancestors took from their Irish neighbors when these were forced to leave. There are more people of Irish Ancestry in England than in the Republic of Ireland. Descendants of Irish overseas are no longer considered really Irish since there is no Irish Religion that defines them as such. Jews belong to the Jewish Religion that the Jewish People is represented by. The Jewish Religion says that Judah and Samaria belong to the Israelite nation.
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7. Nick Cooper

There was no point at which the Irish en masse moved or were removed from Ireland, and no population that effectively replaced them. The Irish 'claim' to Ireland is one of continued and not significantly interrupted occupation for millennia.

Comment of YD: 
 The other respondents have stated anyone who was born in Ireland (e.g. including whether one or other or both of their parents were German or African) is Irish. Most descendants of the Ancient Irish are now overseas in North America, Australia, the UK, Latin America, etc. Do they have any claim to Ireland? I guess not. Do the Jews have any claim to the lands and property the Muslims and Europeans took from them when they expelled Jews from their lands, etc. Not really. Jews however do have a claim to Judah and Samaria since the Bible gives them one and they never stopped believing in the Bible.
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8. John Brosnan

Your assertion is clearly nonsense.

Comment of YD: 
 Maybe on a superficial level it lacks practical application. Nevertheless it serves as a framework to show that the Irish have a lesser claim to the land they call their own than the Jews have to Judah and Samaria. 
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9. Peter Topping

Err, who are the other claiments to Ireland? There are multiple claiments to Judah and Samaria with some of the claiments in situ for a least a 1000 years.

Comment of YD: 
 See what we replied to no.3 above. The fact that the prior claim of Christians to be in the region is ignored by nearly everyone including the Irish shows that longitude of residence in itself is not a consideration except to use against Jews.
Incidentally the Jews were in the land for from about 1500 BCE to ca. 500 CE. They were then forced out BUT kept on coming back. They still keep coming back. The others keep going away. 
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10. Ernie Strauss

The Jewish claim to Israel is valid and very strong. As a Jew I support it 1000%. The Irish claim to Ireland is absolute and it's not a claim; it's a fact.

Comment of YD:
I agree with you in part BUT I would say the truth is the reverse, i.e.
The Irish claim to Ireland is reasonable enough for the time being. The Jewish Claim to ALL the land of Israel including Judah and Samaria is ABSOLUTE!
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11. John Whelan

The Irish don't 'claim' Ireland. For some of us it's our nationality and for others it's just ancestral heritage. And anyone of Irish descent who lives in another country has no claim to live in Ireland unless they are dual citizens.

Comment of YD:
Exactly! Because the Irish overseas do not claim Ireland they have no claim. The Irish believe they are in Ireland by accident so accident can take them away. The Jews however always claimed Judah and Samaria for themselves by Divine Decree. This claim was upheld by others. It cannot be nullified, ever.
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12. Roger Boscombe

 there is something of a 2000 year gap between when the majority of Jewish people left Israel and returned. To be honest, if we're distinguishing Judaism as a religion distinct from Judaism as an ethnicity, then it seems fairly likely to assume that the ones who stayed in the region may have actually converted to a different religion anyway.

Comment of YD:
Gap or no Gap they have come back as they always said they would and as the British, French, and Americans at the time in question wanted them to. These were then the only great Civilized Nations on earth. At the beginning of History the Jews were a nation that was defined by the Jewish Religion. In Exile they continued to be so defined. Who was accepted by the Jewish Religion belongs to the Jewish nation. Judah and Samaria belong to the Jewish Nation which is defined by the Jewish Religion. Jews who left the Religion left the Jewish Nation or at least had their membership suspended. [Maybe some of the Irish were among them?] This is not a question of moral considerations but rather of what there is.
This is the reality.