If Norwegians could just stick to looking out for polar bears - by Judith Bergman

How lovely it would be if Norwegians could just stick to looking out for polar bears instead of pathetically attempting to meddle in Israel's business and then not even having the backbone to admit it.

Judith Bergman..
Israel Hayom..
01 September '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17065

One of the world's northernmost inhabited places is Longyearbyen, a small town of about 2,000 people in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole.

Svalbard is a place of indescribable beauty, filled with an untouched arctic wilderness that will leave you in constant awe, simply grateful to be alive to witness such staggering wonders: untouched arctic landscapes, blueish glaciers and frozen tundra, which is home to an arctic wildlife that includes polar bears.

Indeed, the most dangerous neighbors a human being can come across in Svalbard are polar bears, which is why it is prohibited to venture outside Longyearbyen without a weapon.

Longyearbyen's residents come from all over the world and the place feels as far removed from any kind of international politics as you could possibly imagine.

Ever since my husband and I visited this place, we have spoken about going back, and my husband has even taken to reading Svalbardposten -- the world's northernmost newspaper.

It was during the perusal of this usually apolitical source of news -- it is not uncommon for nine out of 10 headlines to include polar bears in some form or other -- that my husband jumped from his chair, pointing to the computer screen in horror. I looked at the headline, which said, "Boycott Israel!"

So there it was: the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement had made its way to the northernmost inhabited place on earth. The text was a letter to the editor, written last summer by a local priest, Leif Magne Helgesen, in which he was peddling the most outlandish claims, including that Israel is "a military regime" and encouraging his fellow Longyearbyen residents to boycott Israel. The priest had spent his summer vacation in a Palestinian Arab village and had returned a full-fledged BDS warrior, ready to go against Israel, which he continued throughout his lengthy diatribe to describe as a "regime."

There is something deeply ironic, tragicomically so, about a priest who does his business in the northernmost spot on earth, surrounded only by the Creator's beauty and the occasional scare from a polar bear, isolated from the rest of the world and certainly from the issues of the Middle East, venting his anti-Semitic fury and rage at a country that could not possibly be further removed from him than Israel. It is also telling that this man is, of all things, a priest.

When you have friends like Norway...

...However, despite these strong expressions of support and friendship, the Norwegian government continues to provide tens of millions of kroner to organizations that actively promote BDS, campaign against the right of the Jewish people to self determination, and seek to undermine the Oslo Framework (the international framework originating in Norway, established to lead to the creation of a peaceful Palestinian state living side by side with Israel). These activities, financed with public money, directly oppose Norwegian policy, damage Norwegian-Israeli ties and damage the prospects for Middle East peace.

Anne Herzberg..
Times of israel..
14 May '14..

This week, Shimon Peres visited Norway and was feted by King Harald V. In anticipation of that occasion, Norway’s ambassador to Israel, Svein Sevje, gave an interview to the Jerusalem Post highlighting the friendly relations and expanding business and cultural ties between his country and the Jewish state. Moreover, he stressed the Norwegian government’s support for Middle East peace based on two states for two peoples, and opposition to poisonous Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns. These deepening connections and rejection of delegitimization are welcome.

However, despite these strong expressions of support and friendship, the Norwegian government continues to provide tens of millions of kroner to organizations that actively promote BDS, campaign against the right of the Jewish people to self determination, and seek to undermine the Oslo Framework (the international framework originating in Norway, established to lead to the creation of a peaceful Palestinian state living side by side with Israel). These activities, financed with public money, directly oppose Norwegian policy, damage Norwegian-Israeli ties and damage the prospects for Middle East peace.

A number of Norwegian-funded groups have launched vicious campaigns libeling and harassing companies that do not share their extreme political views. For example, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) receives more than 200 million NOK from the government, and has played a central role in getting companies excluded from the Norwegian Pension Fund based on tendentious and even false factual and legal claims.

NPA has also called for economic warfare against SodaStream. This Israeli company employs more than 900 Palestinian workers under conditions far better than they could obtain elsewhere. However, one of its many factories is located just within the West Bank, in an area slated to be part of Israel under any peace deal. In NPA’s radical world view, this marginal connection is enough to target the company and its employees, threatening them with financial ruin.

Teaching the world to view Jewish blood as cheap

...What other country would free murderers who killed hundreds of its citizens just to bribe another party into talks whose sole aim is to give them the land and sovereignty they claim to want?

Evelyn Gordon..
Commentary Magazine..
27 August '13..

While visiting Israel this week, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide grudgingly admitted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to Israeli-Palestinian talks “sounds increasingly credible.” As proof, he cited Israel’s release of 26 Palestinian murderers earlier this month. But he immediately downplayed the move’s significance: While it was a “first sign,” he said, it “wasn’t an especially big sacrifice.”

This echoes Norwegian and Swedish reactions two weeks ago after Israel’s ambassador to Sweden compared Israel’s feelings about freeing those killers to how Norwegians would feel about freeing Anders Breivik, whose 2011 shooting spree killed 69 Norwegians, mostly teenagers. Outraged Scandinavians lined up to denounce the comparison, asserting that while Breivik was a mass murderer, the Palestinians were freedom fighters. As Jonathan wrote at the time, the general sentiment seemed to be that killers of Norwegians deserve punishment, but killers of Israelis “should be released and honored.” And that seems to be Eide’s view as well: Releasing cold-blooded killers who murdered elderly Holocaust survivors or old men sitting on park benches isn’t “an especially big sacrifice,” certainly nothing like releasing Breivik would be.

But while I agree with Jonathan that this double standard is anti-Semitic, I don’t think the Scandinavians are solely to blame. If much of the world has concluded that (Jewish) Israelis’ blood is cheap, and that their killers don’t deserve the same punishment as those who kill, say, Norwegians, a large share of the blame belongs to successive Israeli governments. For by repeatedly releasing Palestinian murderers under circumstances no other government would contemplate, Israeli governments have shown that they hold the blood of Israeli citizens cheaply. And if even Israel’s government doesn’t view murdering Israelis as a crime that deserves life imprisonment, why should anyone else?

A Scandinavian Moral Bankruptcy of the Highest Order

...In his view, and apparently in the opinion of most of the Swedes and Norwegians who agree with him, there is something “normal” about an average Palestinian wanting to kill a Jew because it is part of an existential desire to eradicate the Jewish presence in the country.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
16 August '13..

In the view of many Europeans, and in particular Scandinavians, not all victims of terror are alike. If, for example, you are an innocent Norwegian child who is gunned down by a deranged right-wing fanatic, you are deserving of compassion and your killer must be punished to the fullest extent of the law. However, if you are a Jew who is gunned down or bombed by a Palestinian, you had it coming and your killer should be released and honored.

That’s the only possible way to interpret the anger being expressed in the region this week in response to remarks made by Israel’s Ambassador to Sweden Isaac Buchman. The ambassador is under fire for asking listeners on Swedish Radio to think about how they would feel if Anders Breivik, the perpetrator of the Utoya Island massacre, were released. Buchman complained that Israel wasn’t getting credit for it’s freeing of 26 Palestinian terrorist murderers in order to entice the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table. But rather than sympathize with the families of Israelis victimized by Palestinian murderers, people in Norway and Sweden are angry about any comparison between their sorrow and that of Jews killed by Arabs. Indeed, as one Swedish paper put it, the families of the Utoya incident are “seething” about the ambassador’s analogy.

In other words, there seems to be some sort of consensus that Breivik’s crimes are beyond the pale while the Jews have it coming when Palestinians kill them. While the Swedes and the Norwegians probably think they are speaking without prejudice, their views display how deep the roots of anti-Semitism run in European culture.

As the Swedish paper The Local reports:

“I think it is ridiculous to compare this with a mass murderer from Norway,” Trond Blattmann, whose son Torjusdatter was killed when Breivik opened fire on Utøya, told The Local. “There’s no similarity at all. This is a ridiculous way to talk.”

“The comparison does not make sense,” added Bjørn Ihler, who survived the massacre by hiding on the southern tip of the island. “Breivik was a solo terrorist whose actions were based purely on an unreal situation. The situation in the Middle East is very different. There is a real fight for Palestinian freedom going on.”

Middle East expert Per Jönsson with the Swedish Institute for International Affairs (Utrikespolitiska institutets – UI) also slammed Bachman’s Breivik comparison.

“The comparison with Breivik is insane in several ways. Breivik is very special. These people that Israel is now releasing are freedom fighters, murderers, and in some cases terrorists, but they are nevertheless rather normal people,” he told the Aftonbladet newspaper.

Contrary to the belief of the Utoya families, the blood of the Jews slaughtered in cold blood by the Palestinians that were acclaimed as heroes this week after their release was no less red than that of Breivik’s victims. The grief of their families was no less profound. The outrage of the people of Israel—and all decent people everywhere—about these wanton acts of murder carried out by Palestinians was no less justified.

Israel? There are Norwegians who absolutely do get it

...Jews were indigenous to the region 1,000 years before the Islamic conquest, with an uninterrupted presence not just in Palestine, but all over the ‘Arab’ world. The issue turns on its head the common misconception that Israel is an outpost of western colonialism and imperialism. The 7th century Arab invasion turned native Jews and Christians into minorities in their own lands, converting them to Islam, appropriating their shrines and erasing their history.

Lyn Julius..
Times of Israel..
21 June '13..

To put it mildly – Norway is not known for its sympathy to Israel, or indeed Jews. Arguably, anti-Zionist waters run deep in its sleepy fjords. The celebrated lawyer and advocate Alan Dershowitz received an Arctic welcome and was prevented from lecturing at Norwegian universities. A recent cartoon in the mass circulation Dagbladet marks a slide into mindboggling anti-Semitism.

Thus it came as a pleasant surprise to read of the experiences of David M Weinberg, Director of Public Affairs at Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. Weinberg spent a week with activists of Med Israel for Fred (MIFF), a dynamic Norwegian pro–Israel group. He writes:

Norwegian MIFF activists have learned that it is simply not enough to explain Israel’s security dilemmas or to revisit Israel’s diplomatic generosity toward the Palestinians. What’s needed is a much more basic restatement of Israel’s cause and purpose: Israel as a grand historic reunion of people and land, as a shelter for the Jewish People, and as a just and moral actor in the medieval and violent Arab Middle East.

One issue in particular delivers a ‘bombshell’ – or a ‘knockout punch’: Jewish refugees from Arab countries:

Particularly important in this regard is education of the non-Jewish public about the plight of Jewish refugees from Arab lands. Nobody knows about the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were expelled from Arab lands and absorbed by Israel, and when they learn of this it dramatically changes the discourse. As opposed to a conversation about Palestinian rights vs Israeli security, the conversation becomes a debate about a balance of rights: about Israeli/Jewish rights and Palestinian/Arab rights.

MIFF has some 7,000 members, mostly in western Norway’s Bible Belt. One of its leaders, Odd Myrland, told Weinberg:

This evens out the playing field, and forces people to think about justice for Israel. We’ve extensively tested this messaging over a long period of time and it is a bombshell. Jewish refugees from Arab lands is our successful knockout punch. We mustn’t ignore this important issue.

Some might object to the expression ‘knockout punch ‘: It trivializes an issue that goes to the heart of justice, human rights, and the Arab/Islamist conflict with Israel and the Jews. But if advocacy is a slanging match between rival narratives, the Jewish refugee issue is a surefire debate winner.

Inserting Jewish refugees into the discourse pays other dividends. Jews were indigenous to the region 1,000 years before the Islamic conquest, with an uninterrupted presence not just in Palestine, but all over the ‘Arab’ world. The issue turns on its head the common misconception that Israel is an outpost of western colonialism and imperialism. The 7th century Arab invasion turned native Jews and Christians into minorities in their own lands, converting them to Islam, appropriating their shrines and erasing their history.

It's about justice, about Israel as a grand historic reunion of people and land

A week with Norwegian friends of Israel taught me how to best present Israel’s case. Israel wins when you speak about justice for Israel; not when you merely proclaim Israel’s desire for peace, talk-up its willingness to compromise, and declare its right to defend itself.

David M. Weinberg..
A Citadel Defending Zion..
07 June '13..

The dramatic mountains and expansive fjords of Norway do not immediately jump to mind as the place to learn about Israel’s diplomatic strengths and weaknesses. Yet the week I just spent with Norwegian friends of Israel taught me how the justice of Israel’s cause can be most effectively presented.

In short, Israel wins when you speak about justice for Israel; not when you merely proclaim Israel’s desire for peace, talk-up its willingness to compromise, and declare its right to defend itself.

Norway is a wealthy country with vast expanses of Divine beauty, but it is a miserly environment for Israel with little sympathy in the halls of government for the Jewish state’s goals and challenges. Norway is one of the top funders of the Palestinian Authority, and last fall it cheerfully supported UN recognition of the PA as an independent state. Perhaps all that North Sea oil has gone to the heads of Norwegian leaders.

Nevertheless, it was heartwarming and inspiring to discover that Israel has broad grassroots support in Norway, and that friends of Israel have organized themselves into an effective and increasingly respected lobby. The group, Med Israel for Fred, or “With Israel for Peace,” is led by Morten Rasmussen, Gabriel Edland, and Conrad Myrland.

Welcome to Norway’s Annual Israel Hate Day

...This is then combined with leaving out often extreme negative news about Palestinians, other Arabs and Muslims. Behind this is what can best be described as “humanitarian racism.” It means that for instance that weak people are not held responsible for criminal deeds. However, responsibility is one of the essential parts of the difference between man and beast. The logical conclusion is that there are many such racists among the Norwegian self-defined “anti-racist camp.”

Manfred Gerstenfeld..
Times of Israel..
04 June '13..

The annual First of May celebration in Norway concerns not only the International Worker’s Day. For Norwegian trade unions, its second role might be called Israel Hate Day. The main coordinator of events is the umbrella organization of Norwegian labor unions, LO. Before each major gathering texts and topics are agreed upon locally. They then usually appear on banners or posters. Most highlight Norway’s domestic problems. But when it comes to foreign issues, the most dominant focus is on hating Israel.

At the main 1st of May celebration in Oslo, Salma Abudahi, from the Gaza’s Union of Agriculture Work Committees (UAWC) spoke, appearing directly before the speech by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Under the heading “Support the state of Palestine – Boycott Israel,” Abudahi called rockets a “symbol of resistance” and said that occupied people have a right to defend themselves. “It is important,” said Abudahi, “to understand the proportions. The Israelis are killing our loved ones all the time.

In Norway’s second largest town Bergen, demonstration poster slogans included: “The Israeli State = Apartheid,” “Repeal the Gaza blockade – Boycott Israel!” and “Syria bleeds – The UN must ensure peace.” In the third largest city Trondheim, a banner said “Boycott Israel – Break ties with the Histadrut.” Pictures of young children holding these hate posters are on the internet. In Norway’s fourth largest city Stavanger, a demonstration banner read: “Free Palestine – Tear down the walls – Boycott Israel.” Only in Kristiansand, the country’s fifth largest city, located in the Southern Bible belt, were there no anti-Israel texts.

Norway and other European impediments to peace

Attacking PMW for exposing hatred, and not the PA for promoting hatred, is a failure that will postpone peace for another generation.

Nan Jacques-Zilberdik..
Op-Ed Contributor/JPost..
26 May '13..

For two months, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide has been questioned by his parliament’s Scrutiny Committee because the Foreign Ministry has been giving false information to parliament since 2011. The Foreign Ministry had denied that the Palestinian Authority pays high monthly salaries to security prisoners, among them convicted terrorists. Palestinian Media Watch, where I am a senior analyst, exposed these PA salaries already in 2011. These salaries are paid from the PA’s general budget, which is funded in part by Norway and other international donors.

At the time, Norway’s Foreign Ministry refused to accept PMW’s reports, basing itself on false data supplied by the PA. Had the ministry seriously studied our reports, Norway would have learned in 2011 that the PA has a special program to give salaries to prisoners, including those convicted of multiple murders.

Finally, two months ago Eide acknowledged that the information the Foreign Ministry had been giving to parliament for two years was false. However, Eide’s public response since then has been a great disappointment.

In an interview to the Norwegian newspaper Dagen, he did not criticize the PA for lying to Norway, nor did he condemn it for using donor money to pay salaries to convicted terrorists. He did not challenge the PA’s ethical foundations as supporters and glorifiers of terrorists and murderers, nor did he explain his ministry’s so-called “imprecise” statements to parliament.

Instead, Minister Eide criticized the research institute where I work, saying that PMW is “against the two-state solution” and “considerably to the right of the Israeli government.”

These claims have no relevance to the PA’s transfer of Norwegian money to terrorists, and are also groundless. Instead of acknowledging that PMW correctly exposed the PA’s unethical behavior and unethical use of Norwegian funding, he chose to attack us, the research institute that was the messenger.

Asking Norway to face up to the lethal consequences of its funding decisions

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
22 May '13..

Last week, the Norwegian state broadcaster NRK ran a serious analytic piece prepared by Tormod Strand, a respected investigative reporter. Based on a news segment that went to air on NRK television, it looks at how Norwegian aid money is playing a significant role in the Palestinian Authority's disgraceful ongoing encouragement of terrorism among its own people.

If we were writing their headlines, we might have thought to call this the Royal Norwegian Reward for Terrorism Program. But that would be ungracious.

We traveled to Oslo a week earlier to speak to the Norwegian public and parliamentarians about the immoral ends to which their money is being applied. The May 14, 2013 NRK article (including a video interview with Arnold Roth) refers to that visit, and is online here.

Below is an English translation, provided by kind courtesy of friends in Finland, Norway and Hong Kong.

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Played for fools by the terrorists. Shock! Horror!

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
14 March '13..



It is difficult to restrain the urge to scream out at the people mentioned in this report (below). The very idea that the terrorists had the nerve to mislead them! And for so many years.

Norway says aid may have gone to Palestinian terrorists

Ramallah provided “incorrect information” about money paid to Palestinians jailed in Israel for deadly attacks, Oslo foreign minister says | March 14, 2013, 9:44 am | JTA |

The Palestinian Authority misled Oslo when it claimed Norwegian aid money was not used to reward the murderers of Israelis, Norway’s foreign minister said. Espen Barth Eide said Monday in a statement that “it is unfortunate that the incorrect information obtained from the Palestinian Authority was communicated to the Parliament.” The statement was quoted in an article by the daily Dagen. Anders Anundsen, a lawmaker for the Progress Party, said the government has long claimed that Norwegian aid did not go to Palestinians who are incarcerated in Israeli jails for murders and terrorist activities. The Palestinian Authority has pledged monthly payments to Palestinian prisoners in Israel since 2003 and raised payments by as much as 300 percent in 2011, according to Israel’s Channel 2 television network. Eide’s statement came after the ministry received new information that revealed “major difference to what we have assumed, according to earlier information we received from the PA,” the minister’s statement said. Norway’s foreign ministry brought up the subject last week during a meeting between its representatives and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, according to Eide. “In this meeting we also took up the dispensation and the level of subsidy for the prisoners, and we clearly expressed that we found this to be problematic,” Eide said. “We also noted the new information on this issue differs from earlier information provided by the PA. We also stated that we find this unfortunate.” Eide said the ministry was waiting for clarifications from Ramallah. Norwegian aid to the Palestinian Authority came under public scrutiny in Norway last month following a documentary by the NRK public broadcaster showing that aid went to inciting hate against Israel. Norway, one of the Palestinians’ strongest supporters in Europe, has contributed more than $50 million a year to the Palestinian Authority since 2008.

We're furious with anger about the bloodless hypocrisy of the European governments and their civil and political servants who have connived and conspired - and continue to do so - to provide essential funding to some of the deadliest terrorist organizations in the world.

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(Video) Norwegian tax money is being used to fund terrorism? Yes, however...

Palwatch..
06 March '13..




Transcript:
NRK TV newsreader: "Convicted Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons receive salaries from their government, an Israeli organization [PMW] claims..."

NRK TV narrator: "A bomb was placed in the cafeteria at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Nine civilians were killed that day in July 2002. The man behind [the attack] was Ibrahim Hamed, convicted of the murder of a total of 46 Israelis. Ibrahim Hamed is one of the approximately 4,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, who, according to the Israeli organization Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), receive salaries from the PA while they are in prison."



PMW Director Itamar Marcus: "Every Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail who is there for security offenses, who is there for - that includes any terrorist offense, including murder, receives a monthly salary from the Palestinian Authority. This includes people who've murdered 50-60 people in suicide bombings that they organized."

NRK TV narrator: "Since 2008, Norway has given over 300 million [Norwegian] kroner annually in direct budget support to the PA in the West Bank. This is the same PA that according to PMW's last report, gives salaries to Palestinian prisoners, among them several hundred inmates convicted of terror-related actions. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry several times has rejected such complaints. Last year in Parliament, [then Foreign Minister] Jonas Gahr Stoere said that 'this is not salaries, it is support for the prisoners' families and canteen money for the prisoners.' The Norwegian Foreign Ministry gave the same answer to NRK TV two weeks ago. But NRK was not satisfied with this answer. We asked for supplementary information from the Foreign Ministry, which we have now received. The Foreign Ministry now says that a separate aid program for Palestinian prisoners who are convicted in Israeli military court does exist."

Norwegian Media, Israel and the Distortion of News

Manfred Gerstenfeld..
Guest Post/Honest Reporting..
23 August '12..

For a number of years, Norway has held the number one position on the Press Freedom Index. The perception that Norway has a free press is however largely false. Indeed, Norwegian authorities do not supervise or censure the media. Yet there is a strong anti-Israel slant and self-censorship among the editors of most media. The country shares a border with Russia. However, one often gets the impression that Israel appears in the Norwegian press more than its own powerful neighbor. Norway’s media are obsessed with Israel and many incite against it in various ways.

The aberrations of several leading Norwegian media often go beyond the usual bias of many other Western anti-Israel papers. They will readily report on issues in which they can blame Israel, but the numerous Palestinian crimes are often omitted or greatly under-reported. One usually searches in vain for articles about the Hamas party platform which mentions its intention to commit genocide of Jews. The same goes for the Palestinian Authority’s glorification of murderers of Jewish civilians. Frequent and transparent lies by Palestinian ministers, officials and media, rarely if ever get attention.

Norwegian media often looks away from the huge criminality and transgressions of humanitarian laws in the Arab and Muslim world. Mentioning that there is no other religion where murderous ideological criminality flourishes as much as in the Islamic world, is equally taboo.

Occasionally a positive article about Israel appears in one of the major papers. This was recently the case with an editorial in the third largest daily Dagbladet. It wondered about the lack of interest in Norway concerning Syria’s many war victims and contrasted it with a focus on Israel.

Were it not for a few brave people like the editors of the small Christian weekly Norge Idag and the leading Norwegian blog Document.no, Norwegians would not have any opportunity to read about how unbalanced the information on the Middle East is that they are being fed by the state-owned TV and radio station NRK and almost all media. The small Christian daily Dagen is equally courageous. It recently published an article of mine in which I explained why Labour Party Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is a part time anti-Semite.

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Norway, Israel and the Jews

FM Stoere tells Israel how to handle complex challenges Norway would never be able to deal with

Manfred Gerstenfeld..
Israel Opinion/Ynet..
21 August '12..

The short Norwegian summer was this year not as quiet as usual. Some aspects of this are also relevant for Israel and the local Jewish community. Part of Norway’s problems are linked to last year’s murder of 77 people by Anders Breivik in Oslo and on the island of Utoya on 22 July.

The just-released conclusions of the government-appointed investigation commission are damning for Norway’s leadership. The report mentions a long list of major shortcomings among which poor protection of governmental buildings, weak police leadership and general disorganization. The ultimate responsibility for these failures lies with Labor Party Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

His government has been proven greatly incompetent at protecting its own citizens. Yet it is a master at criticizing Israel. In particular, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere frequently condemns the Jerusalem government and tells it how to handle infinitely more complex challenges than Norway is able to deal with. This arrogance is often shared by Norwegian media editors, NGOs, some Lutheran bishops, trade union leaders and others among the country’s cultural elite.

Yet it was not difficult to understand that there were structural security problems in Norway already many years ago. In my 2008 book 'Behind the Humanitarian Mask,' the Nordic Countries, Israel and the Jews, I quoted the then-head of the Norwegian Army, General Robert Mood. He described his army’s capability as only being able to defend perhaps one neighborhood in Oslo, much less the entire country.

Abrams - The Trouble With Europe

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure points..
01 May '12..

From time to time come reminders that the disease of anti-Semitism remains deeply embedded and very widespread in Europe. Some of these are predictable, coming from the extreme right or extreme left, but once in a while comes a reminder that deserves special attention.

Yesterday the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a story about a Norwegian named Johan Galtung, who is regarded as the “father of peace studies” and remains today Distinguished Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Hawaii. He is the founder of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo and of the periodical known as the Journal of Peace Research. He has more honorary degrees than you can shake a stick at. And he is an anti-Semite.

As the Haaretz story reveals, he continues to write about how “the Jews control U.S. media,” suggests reading the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and has suggested a link between Israel and the murders in Norway last year committed by Anders Behring Breivik–through the Mossad. Classic anti-Semitic garbage, from one of Norway’s most honored academics.

Daphne Anson - Norwegian Shrink Writes Israel-Demonising Book For Kids

Daphne Anson
08 September '11

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/09/norwegian-shrink-writes-israel.html


No, not for children like this fledgling suicide bomber, whose grown-up equivalents have been rather effectively prevented from carrying out their evil intentions by Israel's separation barrier.

For five- to twelve-year-olds in his own country.

The book has apparently been shortlisted for some sort of award by the Arts Council of Norway.

Its author is a psychiatrist, and as such knows all about mending minds. Unfortunately, his book seems dedicated to bending minds, the minds of children, who in the representative extract below are taught that the IDF are fearsome ogres.

More grist to the mill of antisemitism in the country already infamous as the most antisemitic in Europe.

“Late one night we came to a small country named Palestine. It gets serious now, Dad says. No more kidding! We are driving towards the border, where we get to a full stop. In front of us is the tallest wall I have ever seen. Like a steep wall all the way to heaven. At the gate in the wall there are soldiers on guard, with helmets and guns. What is in your tank, they ask in English. Just water, daddy replies, just water. The soldiers say it is not permitted to bring water across the border. Daddy says he has done this many times before, so it’s OK. But by now it is not OK. Daddy argues with the fierce soldiers, I am so scared I crawl into my sleeping bag. But people need water, Daddy says. No, no water, the soldiers says. But they are thirsty! They need water for their animals and olive trees. No, no water the soldiers say, pointing at daddy with their guns.

Daddy picks up a large bottle of liquor. He asks the soldiers if they want to taste. Very good real Finnish liquor, Daddy says. The soldiers are as fierce as before. But they drinks. They empty the bottle. Daddy and I sits in the car, waiting. We are playing Yatzy until it gets silent. Then I fall asleep, dreaming of juicy oranges. The juice flows down my chin. I wake up when Daddy starts the engine. Then we sneak across the border”.

Read more: http://www.israelwhat.com/2011/09/08/corrupting-the-mind-of-small-children-childrens-book-depicts-israelis-as-evil/

Hat tip: Tundra Tabloids blog

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Fresnozionism - Norway: a ‘moral superpower’?

Norwegian fascist Vidkun
Quisling inspects Norwegian
Legion troops, in pre-
'moral superpower' days

Fresnozionism.org
04 September '11

http://fresnozionism.org/2011/09/norway-a-moral-superpower/


Norway, the American Ambassador wrote in a 2009 cable, wants to play a role in the Middle East ‘peace process’:

Norway’s desire to make a difference combined with the willingness to expend time and money has made it a mediator in conflicts as far a field as Sri Lanka, Colombia, Haiti, and Sudan. It has elevated peace and reconciliation studies in its universities and reorganized its Foreign Ministry to showcase its expertise in this area. It revels in its self-described role as the “moral superpower” and points to the Oslo Peace Accords as a defining national moment.

“Moral superpower.” What a concept!

But moral superiority begins at home. Does the name Jostein Gaarder ring a bell?

He is a Norwegian writer and intellectual, author of numerous books and winner of several prestigious Norwegian and international prizes. He is also known as an environmental and human-rights activist. In 2006, during the Second Lebanon war, he published a song of hatred for the Jewish state — and the Jewish people — in the Aftenposten, now the largest newspaper in Norway, entitled “God’s Chosen People.” It began as follows:

Glick - Norway's Jewish problem

Caroline Glick
carolineglick.com
09 August '11


http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2011/08/norways-jewish-problem.php


In the wake of Anders Breivik's massacre of his fellow Norwegians, I was amazed at the speed with which the leftist media throughout the US and Europe used his crime as a means of criminalizing their ideological opponents on the Right. Just hours after Breivik's identity was reported, leftist media outlets and blogs were filled with attempts to blame Breivik's crime on conservative public intellectuals whose ideas he cited in a 1,500 page online manifesto.

My revulsion at this bald attempt to use Breivik's crime to attack freedom of speech propelled me to write my July 29 column, "Breivik and totalitarian democrats."

While the focus of my column was the Left's attempt to silence their conservative opponents, I also noted that widespread popular support for Palestinian terrorists in Norway indicates that for many Norwegians, opposition to terrorism is less than comprehensive.

To support this position, I quoted an interview in Maariv with Norway's Ambassador to Israel Svein Sevje.

Sevje explained that most Norwegians think that the Palestinians' opposition to the supposed Israeli "occupation" is justified and so their lack of sympathy for Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism was unlikely to change in the wake of Breivik's attack on Norwegians.

Since my column was a defense of free speech and a general explanation of why terrorism is antithetical to the foundations of liberal democracy - regardless of its ideological motivations - I did not focus my attention on Norwegian society. I did not discuss Norwegian anti- Semitism or anti-Zionism. Indeed, I purposely ignored these issues.

But when on Friday, Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide published an unjustified attack on me on these pages, he forced me to take the time to study the intellectual and political climate of hatred towards Israel and Jews that pervades Norwegian society.

That climate is not a contemporary development. Rather it has been a mainstay of Norwegian society.

Norway As Example: It's Forbidden to Discuss How Political Apologists for Terror-Using Groups Unintentionally Increase Terrorism

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
06 August '11



http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2011/08/case-study-from-norway-it-is-forbidden.html

Note: This article appeared in the Jerusalem Post in response to recent events. I hope this is the last time I address the issue. If you are going to forward or post a copy please use this one as it has a number of small improvements and is not cut.

Before I begin I want to make five points absolutely clear:

1. I was one of the first people in the world to write condemning the action in Norway as terrorism and as committed by a right-winger. Therefore--and based on my career of 35 years including 30 years working on counterterrorism--it should be clear that I would never endorse the murder of dozens of people. The irony is that a plea to fight terrorism by not granting it rewards was distorted into a pro-terrorist position!

2. A large portion of the Norwegian mass media has repeatedly stated that I endorsed the killings and called the kids at the camp terrorists. This is a lie. False quotes were attributed to my article. To my best knowledge, nobody in Norway tried to establish the truth or report fairly.

3. No Norwegian media--indeed no reporter from anywhere in the world--made any attempt to interview me on this issue and find out what I thought and what I wrote. Imagine, this is the biggest story in Norway and nobody contacted me at all.

4. The Jerusalem Post never discussed this issue with me nor contacted me to discuss the issue and hear my position. I have written for this newspaper for about 30 years without a single controversy arising before.

5. We have arrived at the strange situation in which the Norwegian media and apparently the Norwegian government considers me to be "pro-terrorist" but does not consider Hamas (and a number of other groups one could name) to be "pro-terrorist."

What explains this kind of thing--deliberate lies, deceitful reporting, disinterest in truth, disinterest in fairness? Answer: The conversion of the public debate and media into propaganda exercises in which (ironically, McCarthyist) witchhunts are conducted and those entrusted with the sacred pursuit of truth and accuracy use their positions to spread lies, incitement, and indoctrination.

This has been going on now for some years but there's nothing like experiencing something first-hand to comprehend it well. I now hope to get back to work as an analyst of international affairs and especially of the Middle East.

Foreign Minister Store with Hamas Prime Minister Haniya: Smiles at Hamas, Frown at Israel. Deny Being an Enabler of Terrorism. Norwegian media accuses me--but not Hamas--of supporting terrorism. Haniya on US. assassination of Usama bin Ladin,

“Of course we condemn the…killing of a Muslim jihad fighter….We pray for Allah to cover him with His mercy, next to the prophets, the righteous, and the martyrs."

A Case Study from Norway: It Is Forbidden to Discuss How Political Enablers of Terrorist Groups Unintentionally Encourage Terrorism Without Being Labelled A Terrorist

By Barry Rubin

“I do not understand Norway’s position, and I say that as a friend of Norway. If they shoot, if they fire rockets, why doesn’t Norway believe that they are terrorists? What else do they need to do? Let us not forget that Norway and the other Scandinavian countries called in Yasir Arafat and said: `Iif you want a deal, you must first renounce terrorism. You must recognize the state of Israel, and you must commit yourself to peace.’ Why is all this forgotten? What is the difference between the PLO at that time and Hamas today?” --President Shimon Peres, May 2011

We want Palestine in its entirety—so there will not be any misunderstandings. If our generation is unable to achieve this, the next one will, and we are raising our children on this. Palestine means Palestine in its entirety, and Israel cannot exist in our midst…. We liberated Gaza through resistance. We want to conduct resistance in the West Bank as well." -- Hamas leader Mahmud Zahhar, July 2011, a few days before members of Norway’s ruling party expressed enthusiasm for helping Hamas. .

Ironically, the reaction to my article, “The Oslo Syndrome,” proved its thesis, the same point as the one President Shimon Peres made. If terrorism is empowered, terrorism is more likely to occur. That uncontroversial point has been blown up into something controversial by deceit.

The Norwegian government and media establishment wants no honest discussion of these issues. Instead, my article was misrepresented in order to stir up a frenzy that closed ears and shut eyes to what I was saying. Indeed, the Norwegian newspaper falsely claimed that I had endorsed the terrorist attack there.

How’s that for constructive dialogue and healing?

Fresnozionism - JPost apologizes for telling it like it is

Fresnozionism.org
05 August '11

http://fresnozionism.org/2011/08/jpost-apologizes-for-telling-it-like-it-is/

It is distressing when an honest person, or newspaper, speaks the truth and is bullied into taking it back.

On July 25, the Jerusalem Post published an editorial (“Norway’s challenge“) about the terrorist attacks in Oslo and Utøya, Norway.

The editorial — which at least for now still exists on the Web, but is no longer linked from the Post’s editorial pages — was quite clear in denouncing the murderous actions of Anders Breivik. But it included this:

While it is still too early to determine definitively Breivik’s precise motives, it could very well be that the attack was more pernicious – and more widespread – than the isolated act of a lunatic. Perhaps Brievik’s inexcusable act of vicious terror should serve not only as a warning that there may be more elements on the extreme Right willing to use violence to further their goals, but also as an opportunity to seriously reevaluate policies for immigrant integration in Norway and elsewhere. While there is absolutely no justification for the sort of heinous act perpetrated this weekend in Norway, discontent with multiculturalism’s failure must not be delegitimatized or mistakenly portrayed as an opinion held by only the most extremist elements of the Right…

The challenge for Norway in particular and for Europe as a whole, where the Muslim population is expected to account for 8% of the population by 2030 according to a Pew Research Center, is to strike the right balance. Fostering an open society untainted by xenophobia or racism should go hand in hand with protection of unique European culture and values.

Europe’s fringe right-wing extremists present a real danger to society. But Oslo’s devastating tragedy should not be allowed to be manipulated by those who would cover up the abject failure of multiculturalism. [my emphasis]

Negative reactions were immediate, with many accusing the paper of supporting Breivik’s goals or providing a “justification” for Breivik’s terrorist act.

Judge for yourself. It seems to me that the editorial makes a valid point: here you have a despicable individual committing a despicable act, who irrationally believed that his action would solve a problem. Does this imply that there is no problem, or, worse, that no one is allowed to mention the problem lest they inspire similarly deranged individuals to terrorism?

Let’s turn it around. There is Arab terrorism against Israel, supposedly because ‘Palestinian’ land is ‘occupied’. Are those who believe this and say it publicly therefore responsible for Arab terrorism? There are quite a few Norwegians that would fall into this category.

Rubin - The "Oslo Syndrome" and the Terror Attack in Norway

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
31 July '11

http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2011/07/oslo-syndrome-and-terror-attack-in.html

One of the most sensitive aspects of the very sensitive subject of the murderous terrorist attack in Norway by a right-wing gunman is this irony: The youth political camp he attacked was at the time engaged in what was essentially (though the campers didn’t see it that way, no doubt) a pro-terrorist program.

The camp, run by Norway’s left-wing party, was lobbying for breaking the blockade of the terrorist Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip and for immediate recognition of a Palestinian state without that entity needing do anything that would prevent it from being a terrorist base against Israel. They were backing and justifying forces that had committed terrorism against Israelis and killing thousands of people like themselves.

Even to mention this irony is dangerous since it might be taken to imply that the victims “had it coming.” The victims never deserve to be murdered by terrorists, even any victims who think that other victims of terrorists “had it coming.” This is in no way a justification of that horrendous terrorist act. It’s the exact opposite: a vital but forgotten lesson arising from it that can and should save lives in future.

Call it the Oslo Syndrome.

The Stockholm Syndrome is named after an incident in which hostages taken by a terrorist group then quickly became supporters of that group. A combination of intimidation (persuade these people that we’re friends or they’ll kill us); human psychology (get to know someone and hear their sad—whether or not true—story and sympathy arises); and ideology (having—or thinking you have—common ideas and interests with the terrorist movement).

Then there was the Oslo Process, the 1993-2000 effort to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In retrospect, it can be read as an attempt to solve a conflict by offering a great deal to those who instead rejected the offers, believing they could total victory through tactics including terrorism. Many in the West—especially Norway--think it only failed because not enough was offered and exculpating the terrorist side and strategy.

The Oslo Syndrome encompasses all of these things but goes a step further, for the most dangerous things you can do about terrorism is to make it appear politically successful and hence a great thing to do. For terrorism is not an ideology or a movement but merely a tactic: to murder noncombatants systematically and deliberately for political ends.

If you do this, will others, including the victims, be so terrorized as to give you whatever you want? Will they ignore the moral implications and support you nonetheless? Can you successfully make the argument that you are so oppressed as to justify terrorism, as the ambassador of Norway implied is true against Israel after the killings in the summer camp? Is it possible to engage in terrorism yet convince much of the world that your victims are the real terrorists?