It claimed Jews had "invented" their God and mounted a "self-serving and untruthful Zionist myth" to lay claim to Israel.

Rabbi Dr Yaakov Pearlman said the editorial by a former Irish government minister was a "desecration" of his faith.

Amid recriminations against Justin Keating's diatribe, another offensive article emerged which blamed Israel for the deaths of "many Catholics" in Northern Ireland.

It marks a troubled period for Irish Jews.

In June the Jewish Telegraph witnessed IRA extremists targeting Israeli football fans with "Sieg heil" and "Death to Israel" taunts before a match in Dublin.

And last week, Dublin students dedicated a week to denouncing the Jewish State.

It has led sources in Dublin to question whether this is a concerted campaign, following a relative period of calm.

They are infuriated that Keating, who served as Industry Minister between 1973 and 1977, was allowed to use The Dubliner magazine to launch such a ferocious attack.

The 75-year-old says in the November issue: "The Zionists have no right in what they call Israel."

Keating, who was also a member of the European Parliament, disputed Judaism's entire historical and religious connection to the land.

In fact, he has two children by a Jewish woman, Loreto, to whom he was once married. The Jewish Telegraph understands she was the daughter of the late Louis Wine, who owned an antiques shop in Dublin.

In the article he reduced thousands of years of history to bullet points, including:

"Did the Jews of the Old Testament come from what is now Israel? The answer is No."

"Are the Jews of the world today simply the descendants of the people of the Diaspora two thousand years ago? The answer is, only in part."

"Did the Balfour Declaration give the Zionists the right to establish a state in Israel? The answer is no. At the time the British Government had no right to give [them the land]."

"Did the United Nations Resolution of November 1947 give Zionists the right to establish the present state of Israel? The answer is no."

A section, which Keating admits "loosely" quotes former Israeli Former Minister Abba Eban, has been deemed the most offensive.

"[The Hebrew Tribes] moved from Ur in southwest Mesopotamia to Haran, in northwest Mesopotamia. It was here that Abraham was told, by the God that the Jews had invented (who would say that, wouldn't he?), to leave his land and kinsmen for a new country."

This is disproved by archaeological evidence, according to Ireland's Chief Rabbi.

Rabbi Pearlman told the Jewish Telegraph: "According to the biblical report, Abraham was 75-years-old when he received the voice of God Almighty informing him he was going to be leader of the great nation.

"God was not an invention but a discovery through Abraham's own intellect.

"To say that he was an invention would be a desecration of the sanctity of our religion."

The Israeli Embassy in Dublin has written a furious letter to The Dubliner, demanding an apology for the "claptrap" in a bid to settle inflamed race relations.

"I found it offensive and hurtful, while adding fuel to the fire of some Irish people's wrong views on Israel and Jews," said spokesman David Golding. "It was pure antisemitism because it questions our God and our religion."

He added: "I am very angry and disappointed that an eminent Irish historian could produce such revisionist rubbish."

Simon Plosker, senior editor of Honest Reporting, a website which monitors journalism, commented: "The entire article was hurtful and defamatory - to not just Israel but the entire Jewish people.

"By trying to erase 3,700 years of Jewish connection to a land, essentially he not only rewrote the Bible but called into question scientific and archaeological fact that should not be disputed by any serious historian."

But The Dubliner's editor has bizarrely turned on the 2,000 complainants who have inundated the culture magazine, which sells nearly 10,000 copies a month.

"I didn't expect to get so many abusive and vulgar emails," said Trevor White, who founded the publication five years ago.

"I deeply resent the charge that it [the article] is antisemitic - that is lazy and unfair. It is extraordinary people are so ignorant and offensive."

White - the son of a Jew - refused to apologise to anyone who had been offended.

"It provokes debate, and open debate is one of things that distinguishes a democracy from dictatorship," he said.

The article claims Israel has no right to exist, despite the world - including many Arab countries - now being converted to the two-state solution.

White said consensus positions should never be accepted and offered an analogy, which may provoke more consternation.

"You may as well argue in Nazi Germany it was legitimate to hate Jews because a lot of people did," he said.

White tried to distance himself from Keating, adding: "I don't necessarily agree with the things he has said."

Keating will repudiate the mounting criticism against him in the December issue.

It later emerged that White had pleaded with Israeli tourism chiefs to take him there to write for the Irish Times.

He admitted: "I have been to Israel several times, and have always come away with immense affection and respect for the people I met there."

It isn't the only article to have caused offence in the Irish Republic this week.

A small weekly paper in County Cork, which normally concerns itself with rural affairs, has been publishing a series of articles damning Israel.

One letter to the Southern Star called for boycott of Israeli products and for the return of all lands to the Palestinians.

A columnist, who uses the nom de plume Archon, blamed Israel for arming Irish Loyalists.

"Mossad sent [shipments of arms] to Northern Loyalists in the 1980s and which contributed to the deaths of many innocent Catholics," he wrote.

The Jewish Telegraph can reveal that Archon is Barry Collins, who said last night: "I am a wronged robin."

Asked for proof of the Mossad link, he insisted: "All will be revealed shortly".