Joe Biden was attacked over his Israel policy by Irish politician Clare Daly, who called the Democrat "butcher Biden" in a speech to the European Parliament.
Speaking in a plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Daley, who is a member of the left-wing Irish party Independents 4 Change, which is part of the European Parliament group The Left in the European Parliament- GUE/NGL, criticized the U.S. president for supporting Israel and authorizing airstrikes on positions held by Iran-backed Houthis inside Yemen last week.
Daly posted her speech on X, formerly Twitter, and it went viral, accruing 3.3 million views at the time of writing.
"Despite the catastrophic death toll it has inflicted, Israel is losing," Daly said. "On the ground and in the court of public opinion. There's no way that this ends that doesn't leave Israel a pariah state, with occupation and apartheid on borrowed time and they know it. So they're doing everything they can: desperate acts of aggression to provoke a wider conflict with Lebanon, with Iran, with anybody, to draw in the U.S. to save them from the consequences of their own actions.
Frau Genocide, that’s enough!’ - Irish MEP Claire Daly came up with a new nickname for Ursula pic.twitter.com/4Q1yRZOMdX
— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) December 25, 2023
"And as Yemen shows, butcher Biden is reporting for duty. With Europe's Frau Genocide by his side, they are the ones who have enabled the continuation of Israeli terror. Without them, it would already be over. So take notes butcher Biden: the ancestors of the Ireland that you claim to be from disown you. Keep our country out of your mouth. And as for [Ursula] von der Leyen and genocidal Germany with your words and deeds supporting Israel in the ICJ: not in our name! The people of Europe stand with Palestine and with South Africa.
It comes as Sinn Féin, the nationalist party that is leading in national polls in Ireland has come out in support for Palestine. In November, party leader Mary Lou McDonald called for Israel's ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, to be expelled during the party's annual conference.
“Butcher Biden”, “Genocidal Germany” … hearing those words from inside the EU parliament is wild 🔥pic.twitter.com/y15vb0RQtV
— Hadi Nasrallah (@HadiNasrallah) January 16, 2024
Meanwhile, there have been calls for Irish politicians to show solidarity with the Palestinian people by refusing to attend St Patrick's Day celebrations in the White House.
Gerry Carroll, a member of the legislative assembly of Northern Ireland for the People Before Profit party, called for a boycott in January.
But in December, McDonald signaled her opposition to the idea. "I think you need to be very careful about any idea of boycotting, the Irish relationship with the United States is a very long standing one, a very valuable one, on many, many dimensions," she told Irish publication The Journal. "I don't think boycotting an event like that would resolve the issue at hand in the Middle East."
In response, Democratic Massachusetts Representative Richard Neal, who co-chairs the Congressional Friends of Ireland caucus and has had good relations with Sinn Féin, told Politico he disagreed with the expulsion proposal. Governments get to appoint who they want to be advocates in foreign capitals," he said. "There are probably a lot of ambassadors that I might disagree with here [in Washington], but I would not call for their expulsion." He added it was "not for me to intervene in their own politics," and said the move would not impact the U.S. relationship.
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