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Irish PM has ‘lost moral compass,’ says Israeli Foreign Minister

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen blasts Irish Prime Minister, after he claimed Israeli child held captive by Hamas was merely ‘lost,’ rather than abducted.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israel harshly condemned the Irish prime minister after he said that an Israeli child held hostage by Hamas for seven weeks until Saturday night had been “lost,” rather than abducted.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen posted to X, “Mr. Prime Minister, It seems you have lost your moral compass and need a reality check! Emily Hand was not ‘lost,’ she was kidnapped by a terror organization worse than ISIS that murdered her stepmother.”

“Emily and more than 30 other Israeli children were taken hostage by Hamas, and you, Leo Varadkar, are trying to legitimize and normalize terror. Shame on you!” he added.

All the Irish head of state had commented on X after Hamas released nine-year-old Emily in its second batch of hostages was that, “This is a day of enormous joy and relief for Emily Hand and her family. An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned, and we breathe a massive sigh of relief. Our prayers have been answered.”

Emily’s father, Tom, had met with Varadkar to plead for his help in freeing his daughter, who had her ninth birthday in a Hamas tunnel earlier this month.

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The pro-Israel American lobbying group AIPAC joined in the condemnation, writing, “Lost?! She didn’t go for a walk and get confused trying to find her way home. Emily was kidnapped by Hamas.”

“She wasn’t merely found, the terrorists who took her knew where she was for 49 days. She was returned because the IDF rightfully pressured Hamas to give her back,” the group added.

Chief Rabbi of Ireland Yoni Wieder told World Israel News Sunday that he’s not surprised by Varadker’s comment.

“For the last six weeks, Irish politicians and media have been saying repeatedly that Israel is indiscriminately killing civilians in Gaza,” he said. “Varadkar has depicted Israeli defensive action as a form of revenge against the Palestinian people. Other politicians here have said that there is no conceivable reason in the world why anyone wouldn’t call for a ceasefire.”

“On the other hand,” he continued, “there has been barely any acknowledgement of the use civilians by Hamas as human shields, or of the fact that Hamas has not allowed the Red Cross access to the hostages.”

Rabbi Wieder said that Tom, and Emily’s half-sister Natalie, came two weeks ago to Dublin to meet with media and politicians, “because up until that point, the ongoing plight of the hostages was barely being spoken about.”

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“I did an interview last week with one of the largest Irish news channels, in which I spoke about how pictures of the hostages have been ripped down in Dublin city center,” he added. “The news agency completely cut out that section of the interview. Apparently, such incidents are not of interest or concern to them or their viewers.”