Into the twilight zone: Swedish editor says “I’m not a Nazi” ...

...as he publishes second round of allegations that IDF harvests Palestinian organs

Robin Shepherd
Think Tank Blog
24 August 09

Hats off to Benny Dagan, Israel’s ambassador to Sweden. In response to a question from a Swedish journalist yesterday as to why Israel will not investigate claims made in the Aftonbladet newspaper that the Israeli military kills Palestinian children to harvest their bodily organs, he nailed the beast at the heart of this story in style:

“Why don’t we investigate why the Mossad and the Jews were behind the bombing of the twin towers?” he was quoted as saying by the Jerusalem Post. “Why won’t we investigate why Jews are spreading AIDS in the Arab countries? Why won’t we investigate why Jews killed Christian children and took their blood and organs to bake matzot on Pessah?”

Meanwhile, Jan Helin, the editor of Aftonbladet, was quoted by Ynet (the English language version of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot) as saying today: “I’m not a Nazi. I’m not anti-Semitic.” Under the circumstances, the second point presents us with something of a head scratcher. As far as the first is concerned, I for one believe him. He is probably where Sweden has always been on the question: neutral.

But leaving that aside, the saga just gets more and more bizarre.

On Sunday, the paper ran a second article repeating the allegations despite an admission last week by the author that he had “no idea”, “no clue” whether any of this was true. In an editorial in Aftonbladet about the affair, Helin said: “I’m a responsible editor who gave the green light to an article because it raises a few questions.”

Sorry, there isn’t an editor on the planet who just runs stories because they raise “a few questions”. On that basis, he would have run the Protocols of Zion. But let’s not tempt fate.

The bigger picture here is of a political culture in Sweden (and by extension western Europe as a whole) which has been so utterly degraded by anti-Zionist bigotry that normal standards of decent and reasoned behaviour are simply tossed out of the window whenever the subject of Israel is raised.

As I said at the start of this latest business in Sweden, this has now become routine. It’s just another day in modern Europe, and just another step down on the descent into barbarism.
Related: Sweden Runs For Cover
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