Well this is one way to win hearts and minds when the world is expressing outrage against the slaughter in Gaza. From the Irish Times (and thanks to Ed Moloney):

The Israeli Embassy in Dublin has removed controversial images from its official Twitter feed, including one of the statue of Molly Malone wearing a Muslim headscarf.

The four photos featured well-known statues and artwork associated with different European countries. Weaponry and traditional Muslim headscarves were superimposed on the images. The pictures were posted last Friday but were removed after online backlash.

In a photo entitled “Israel now Dublin next”, Dublin’s famous Molly Malone statue is covered in a traditional Muslim niquab, a long black headscarf.

A picture addressed to Paris features the Mona Lisa covered in a hijab and holding a large rocket. In an image called “Israel now Italy next”, Michaelangelo’s David wears a skirt fashioned out of explosives.

The fourth photo depicts Denmark’s statue of the Little Mermaid holding an enormous gun with the words “Israel now Denmark next”.

All four photos contain the caption “Israel is the last frontier of the free world”.

This reminds me of Scott McConnell’s analysis that Israel served as “transmission belt” for a lot of bad ideas about the Arab world to the U.S. Today it’s in the twitter feed. But this same cartoonish view of Islam’s threat and of Israel’s role as the firewall was surely conveyed to Dick Cheney by the likes of Bernard Lewis and Bill Kristol, and played an important role in the decision to invade Iraq. As Kristol said, Israel’s war is our war. Though he left out the Mona Lisa.