Advantage In, Advantage Out

As 2011 opened, as many as 200 Irish artists had signed a pledge to boycott Israel.

Then there's the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, championing the rights of the Palestinians and calling out the Israelis for inhumane treatment.

You might believe that it's far more inhumane to lob missiles into Israeli homes and schools, but you probably think Israel doesn't have a right to protect its citizens by any means at the country's disposal. Being constantly on guard against attack does tend to warp the sensibilities.

Clearly, there's not much love between the Israelis and the Irish. As you'd imagine, they'd have even less love for an Israeli Jew (granted, his parents were Iraqi immigrants) who's campaigned on behalf of the Palestinian cause in Ireland.

Ezra Yitzhak Nawi is aware of the bad blood, because he's convinced that he's become a victim of the political tennis match.

Ad in, Mr. Nawi. The activist gave the Israeli government headaches when the cameras were rolling as he tried to block Israeli bulldozers that were demolishing homes built illegally by Arabs as part of their protest against the very existence of Israel.

Ad out, Mr. Nawi. The openly gay thorn in Israel's side once served time in an Israeli prison for raping a teenage boy, and the twenty-year-old case suddenly became huge news in Ireland.

It's how the game is played, with one side serving and the other returning until one player misses the ball. It isn't unreasonable to accuse the Israelis of leaking details of the case to Irish journalists as they served up a little retribution that would make ordinary, open-minded people look at Mr. Nawi in a different way. Homosexuality is one thing, but pedophilia is quite another.

In Ireland, however, the story had greater resonance because Mr. Nawi was once the lover of Irish politician David Norris, who actively sought clemency from the Israeli judges on behalf of his sweetie, convicted of statutory rape. Mr. Norris' campaign for the Irish presidency was going quite well, until letters he'd written in support of Mr. Nawi were made public and the campaign came crashing down.

Mr. Norris has gone home in disgrace, while Mr. Nawi is left to hiss in powerless fury.

Service, Mr. Nawi. Playing for game point, with a cloud of inappropriate sexual conduct hanging over his head. A definite disadvantage for a human rights campaigner.