Swedish foreign minister Wallström isn’t anti-Semitic, she’s a demagogue - by Stephen M. Flatow

The EU sponsors illegal buildings which they know Israel will demolish, and then Sweden’s foreign minister declares that “more demolitions” are “hindering the peace process.” Can there be greater chutzpah?

Stephen M. Flatow..
Israel National News..
23 March '18..
Link: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/21892

“If I am accused of being an anti-Semite for promoting a two-state solution I think that hurts the debate,” the foreign minister of Sweden haughtily announced this week.

Foreign Minister Margot Wallström is right—calling somebody anti-Semitic just for promoting Palestinian statehood is counterproductive. There’s just one catch. No reasonable person is calling her that. Nobody who is part of the serious public conversation, in Europe or the United States, is making such an allegation. It’s a product of her imagination.

I’m not saying that the foreign minister of Sweden is delusional. I’m not saying she’s imagining things. It’s actually worse than that: she’s a demagogue. She knows full well that no serious person is calling her an anti-Semite. For her to make that charge is an old propaganda trick. You claim that your critics said some crazy thing which they didn’t say, and then you argue against the words that you put in their mouths. See how that works? You come out looking reasonable, and they come out looking crazy.

This all started when Foreign Minister Wallström was interviewed by the Swedish Jewish newspaper “Judisk Krönika” (Jewish Chronicle) on March 19. Sweden was the first EU country to recognize the Palestinian Authority-occupied territories as the “State of Palestine,” and has given the Palestinians more than $700-million in aid since 1993.

Given Sweden’s strongly pro-Palestinian record, I guess it wasn’t surprising when Wallström told the interviewer of her continuing support for Palestinian statehood. She even defended the PA’s policy of providing salaries to imprisoned terrorists and the families of dead terrorists. (Translation provided by Swedish journalist Annika Hernroth-Rothstein.)

Providing Swedish meatballs for Palestinian terrorists? - by Stephen M. Flatow

In another form of Israel-bashing, the foreign minister of Sweden attempts to justify huge amounts of aid to the Palestinian Authority by saying the money is needed to feed “starving Palestinian children.” In reality, some of the money gets channeled for terror operations, while the kids have enough on their plates.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
22 March '18..

Have you ever read a news report about a Palestinian Arab who starved to death? Even one? Of course not, because it never happens. Yet the foreign minister of Sweden is now claiming that the Palestinian Authority must provide salaries to terrorists and their families because otherwise, they will “starve.”

Sweden, which was the first country in the European Union to recognize the P.A.-occupied territories as the “State of Palestine,” has given the Palestinians more than $700 million in aid since 1993. The Swedes are now in the middle of handing out another five-year, $183 million grant package to them.

In an interview by the Swedish Jewish newspaper “Judisk Krönika” (Jewish Chronicle) on March 19, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström was asked how she felt about Swedish tax dollars contributing to the P.A.’s policy of providing salaries to imprisoned terrorists and the families of dead terrorists. The foreign minister squirmed.

“Are people supposed to starve to death or what? What are these families supposed to do if they don’t receive money?” she replied, according to a translation provided by the Swedish-born journalist Annika Hernroth-Rothstein.

That’s an interesting propaganda tactic. Pretend that what your opponent advocates will result in the death of innocent people.

(Continue to Full Article)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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The symptom of a greater flaw in a country searching for its soul - by Annika Hernroth-Rothstein

...We're so used to this treatment -- the lies and distortions and constant barrage of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish reporting -- that we've gotten too desensitized to feel the outrage it deserves. Watching that report from Gaza alongside a non-Jew, seeing his shock and comparing his reality to mine, made me see how bad it has become and what anomalies I refer to as my normal. My friend's reaction was healthy; it came from someone who feels part of this country and expects change when he demands it. That is citizenship, and that is belonging, and I'm beginning to think that as a Jew, I never truly had either.

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein..
Israel Hayom..
09 February '17..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=18365

On Saturday night, my house guests and I sat down to watch the news, and in between reports from Syria and updates on the local snowfall, there was a segment on cancer care filmed in a hospital in the Gaza Strip.

The moment I saw the map on the screen, I knew what to expect. Seventy children will die this year, the solemn journalist said, because Israel won't give their families travel passes to the West Bank to receive treatment. The camera panned to a boy and his mother weeping in a rundown treatment room. For almost 10 minutes, the reporter, who represented Swedish state media, made no reference to terrorism emanating from Gaza or the security risks involved in unlimited movement between it and Israel. He did have time to use the term "heartbreaking" no fewer than three times when referring to the fate of the people in Gaza.

Yes, those sick children would break anyone's heart, but any journalist worth his salt would have interviewed Israeli representatives, too, or at least explained how Hamas and Fatah have chosen to spend their significant funds since 2005 and why they insist on prioritizing mortars over medicine.

I was watching the news with two Jews and one Greek Christian, and out of all of us, it was my Greek friend who had the strongest reaction. Imagine anyone making a segment like this about Greece, he said. Imagine someone from Swedish state TV being allowed to take clear sides in the conflict between Greece and Turkey without public outrage and loss of funds. It wouldn't happen, and it doesn't. But it happens to the Jews every week of every year and we have come to expect it as regularly as the setting of the sun.

Swedish delights? Not really.

...Lofven and Wallstrom have drawn attention recently to themselves with their insane comments about terrorism against Israelis. First up was the foreign minister, who on Friday accused Israel of conducting "extrajudicial executions" while defending itself against Palestinians committing terror attacks. Israel slammed these remarks with the Foreign Ministry responding that her statement was "delusional, rude and detached from reality. The foreign minister is suggesting the citizens of Israel simply present their necks to the killers seeking to stab them with knives. The citizens of Israel and its security forces have the right to defend themselves. In Israel, every person who commits a crime is brought in front of a judge, including terrorists. The citizens of Israel have to deal with terrorism that receives support from irresponsible and false statements like that."

Judith Bergman..
Israel Hayom..
10 December '15..

"We have to temporarily adapt to reality," said Swedish Environment Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Asa Romson recently, inadvertently delivering the truth about Sweden and its politics over the past decades while involuntarily making herself sound like a pathetic fool at the same time.

Swedish top politicians are on the wrong kind of roll right now, delivering a grotesque kind of theatrics that are at times sinister, at times very entertaining to watch from the outside, but most of all plainly embarrassing to many Swedes, who are increasingly shaking their heads at a leadership gone very awry. It should be added that Swedes are a stoic and extremely consensus-seeking lot who will go to great lengths before uttering any kind of dissent, but even they seem to be fed up with a leadership that is so inept, as is evident from the soaring support that the Sweden Democrats have been getting recently.

A YouGov poll from mid-September showed that the anti-immigration party holds 27.3% of voter support, making it the biggest political party in Sweden. In comparison, Swedish Social Democratic Party is trailing behind at 21.3%. Both Prime Minister Stefan Lofven and his foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, are from the Social Democratic Party.

Lofven and Wallstrom have drawn attention recently to themselves with their insane comments about terrorism against Israelis. First up was the foreign minister, who on Friday accused Israel of conducting "extrajudicial executions" while defending itself against Palestinians committing terror attacks. Israel slammed these remarks with the Foreign Ministry responding that her statement was "delusional, rude and detached from reality. The foreign minister is suggesting the citizens of Israel simply present their necks to the killers seeking to stab them with knives. The citizens of Israel and its security forces have the right to defend themselves. In Israel, every person who commits a crime is brought in front of a judge, including terrorists. The citizens of Israel have to deal with terrorism that receives support from irresponsible and false statements like that."

The Swedish Foreign Ministry then issued a meaningless statement on Saturday morning, clarifying that "the foreign minister did not say that Israel conducts 'extrajudicial executions.' The foreign minister made a general statement about international law and the right to self-defense and the importance of proportionality and distinction. What she stated applies to all parties."

That statement is particularly meaningless, because Wallstrom has demonstrated the particulars of her ignorance of international law and the principle of proportionality by falsely implying that the latter has to do with how many casualties there are on each side.

Enter Lofven. While trying to do some much needed damage control regarding Wallstrom's disastrous forays into international law and obvious anti-Semitism, he actually managed to deteriorate things by claiming that stabbing attacks are actually not terrorism at all! "No, it is not classified as that. There is an international classification when it is, or is not. What I know is not classified as terrorism," he told Swedish news agency TT.

The terror in Paris: An odd and disturbing view from Stockholm

...Most of us have our own ways of feeling good about ourselves and life. We now know something about what brightens the Swedish foreign minister's mood, and the same for Europe's most hunted terrorist. Each, in his and her own way, is delusional and simplistic. When it comes to the deadly dangers of terror, the rest of us - and our political leaders - cannot afford to be either.

Friday night's Swedish TV interview with the
country's hapless foreign minister
[Image Source: Screen Capture]

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
16 November '15..

A year ago, Sweden's foreign minister Margot Wallström went to Cairo. It was her first official visit to anywhere outside the EU.

Sweden was one of about fifty countries represented in a conference that sought to figure out how to rebuild Gaza in the wake of the destructive 2014 war between the Hamas Islamist regime and Israel and to collect money for that purpose. (Israel has a vital interest in seeing things get better in Gaza but understands that for deplorable reasons this is not going to happen under Hamas.)

We know now the Cairo conference was not the biggest of successes: the Iranian mouthpiece PressTV reported half a year later ["No home rebuilt in Gaza after 2014 Israel war: UNRWA", April 23, 2015] that things were barely moving. According to Chris Gunness of UNRWA, his agency had gotten funding that barely enabled it "to reconstruct 200 of the 9,161 houses totally destroyed." What a mess.

But not for Ms Wallström. She got back to Stockholm quite pumped up, reporting in an interview to Radio Sweden [here] that Sweden was hailed by the Palestinian Arabs as

"heroes... [because] we plan to recognise the Palestinian state. That is why we are placed in a category of heroes here... They are very pleased and hope this will inspire others. One also believes it is courageous of us to lead the way and so have been very well received."

It's easy to imagine Ms Wallström getting a kick from the sort of attention she received in Cairo. On the whole, 2015 has not been a fun year for her and her ministry, and fawning attention, as well as admiration and respect have been in short supply. This is particularly true of its (and her) broader Middle East strategy. See "20-Mar-15: A peek into how Middle East politics work in reality". Fair warning: that post is not a good place to look for complimentary remarks about Sweden's foreign minister.

Now, in the wake of Friday night's horrific terrorism inflicted on Paris, we get a sense of where that uplifting sense of being someone's hero has brought Margot Wallström and the government in whose name she speaks.

(Read Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter.

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How Europe’s Anti-Israel Obsession Trumps Both Its Democracy and Its Economy

...A growing number of Europeans are evidently willing to sacrifice both their democracies and their economies on the altar of their obsession with Israel. But not to worry – Obama says anti-Semites are rational. And why let the facts interfere with a good story?

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
07 June '15..

Even as President Barack Obama was arguing that Iranian anti-Semitism would never trump the country’s interests (as he defines them), an interesting case study in that theory was playing out in a very different venue: Europe. True, the European version doesn’t involve the classic anti-Semite’s obsession with individual Jews, but only the “new” anti-Semitism’s obsession with the Jewish state. Nevertheless, the results aren’t encouraging. In the past week alone, in the name of that obsession, one European country has gutted its own constitution and a second has endangered several of its leading commercial companies.

The first case involved a report by the Swedish parliament’s Committee on the Constitution, which concluded that Prime Minister Stefan Loefvan’s government violated proper legal procedure in its recognition of “Palestine” last year. The report said the government announced the decision and even instructed Swedish embassies worldwide to put it into practice without consulting parliament’s Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs, as required, and without taking other necessary preparatory steps, such as consulting with the European Union. The report was issued unanimously; even members of Loefvan’s own party signed it.

And then, having unequivocally declared the decision to be in procedural violation of Swedish constitutional law, the committee said the recognition of “Palestine” should nevertheless stand, because that’s a “political” issue on which the panel can’t intervene. In other words, it declared that not only can Loefvan violate Swedish law with impunity, but the illegal decision he made won’t be overturned.

Thus for the sake of catering to Sweden’s pervasive anti-Israel sentiment, Swedish parliamentarians have created a precedent that future premiers will be able to use to justify violating constitutional procedure in other cases. After all, if this unconstitutional move was allowed to stand, why shouldn’t others be? And letting a constitution to be violated with impunity is the surest way to destroy it.

That’s a very high price to pay for indulging anti-Israel animus, but Sweden is evidently willing to pay it.

“Gentleman’s Agreement”? Not for Jews in Sweden

...Incidents such as these explain why Israel is preparing for a significant increase in immigration of European Jews who no longer feel secure in their home countries. In Europe, the problem for many Jews isn’t “Gentleman’s Agreements” keeping them out of select country clubs or restricted neighborhoods. The problem is that they cannot assure their children’s safety.

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure Points..
25 January '15..

The book “Gentleman’s Agreement,” by Laura Z. Hobson, appeared in 1947, followed by the film of the same name starring Gregory Peck (and winning three Oscars).

The plot is simple: a journalist assigned to write about anti-Semitism in the post-war United States decides to pose as a Jew and see what happens. He encounters a good deal of social anti-Semitism: country clubs, “restricted” neighborhoods, jobs that somehow are off-limits. He is not beaten or assaulted, nor does he face physical danger. Instead he faces quiet, unwritten “Gentleman’s Agreements” that exclude Jews.

Recently, a television reporter in Malmo, Sweden tried the same approach to discover what it is like to live as a Jew in Malmo. The entire hour-long show, in Swedish with subtitles, can be found here. Tom Gross, at his web site covering stories related to the Middle East and Jewish affairs, describes it this way:

Swedish TV on Wednesday showed footage of a non-Jewish reporter who walked around Malmo wearing a kippah to test attitudes toward Jews. He was punched in the arm and cursed at by passers-by before cutting short his journalistic experiment out of fear he would be subjected to more serious injury. Sveriges Television also showed footage of the journalist sitting at a café in central Malmo reading a newspaper, while passersby hurled anti-Semitic abuse at him.

Surprise! Sweden approves borders of ‘Palestine’ with Israel erased

...That’s the new Swedish government hard at work: sparing no effort on behalf of its constituents in Ramallah and Gaza. Shame about its few remaining constituents in Stockholm and Gothenburg…

Here is a picture of Hillevi Larsson. She is
 a Member of Parliament in Sweden’s extremist
Social Democratic-led government.

Ilya Meyer..
Times of Israel..
03 December '14..

She is happy because she has just received an award from the Palestinian Association of Malmö, Sweden, as thanks for her support for “Palestine”.

Malmö is famous for two things: (1) Mohammed is the most popular name for newborn boys, and (2) its Jews, who have been living there for almost 250 years, are being systematically hounded out of the city. One may or may not choose to draw conclusions from these parallel trends.

It is of course always nice to be thanked for one’s efforts, especially for something so significant as support for the creation of an entirely new state where none previously existed in the history of the world, in this case the state of “Palestine”.

Which, the Swedish government constantly assures us, is pro-peace, pro-coexistence, and definitely not anti-Semitic. How they ever could draw such conclusions when all the evidence points to the contrary.

But hold on a minute.

What is it that MP Hillevi Larsson is holding together with the flag of “Palestine”? (Remember that this is the country that Sweden financially supports more than it supports its own Swedish pensioners who actually built up Sweden’s economy.)

Why, it’s a plaque showing the borders of “Palestine” – the “Palestine” wholeheartedly supported with Swedish tax funds taken from Swedish pensioners, Swedish schoolteachers, Swedish nurses, firefighters, police officers and more.

And those borders show that UN member state Israel does not exist, it has been replaced in its entirety by “Palestine”.

Welcome to the Swedish Intifada in Israel

...Still feel you are "helping to build bridges of peace", Margot? Still feel you were right in "empowering the Palestinian Arabs"? Do you yet have any idea what you mean by that statement, or just how much you encouraged Palestinian Arab terrorism by vicious extremists who quite rightly interpreted your stance as total support for their aggression, no matter how obscenely barbaric their actions?

Ilya Meyer..
The Sweden-Israel Conundrum/JPost..
16 November '14..

On October 30 Sweden decided to abrogate the agreed-upon Oslo Accords by granting “Palestine” recognition without the Palestinian regime having to fulfill a single one of its many obligations.

These legally binding obligations include:

1. Cessation of racist indoctrination against Jews.
2. Cessation of incitement to violence against Israel.
3. A stop to Palestinian Arab terrorism.
4. Recognition of the state of Israel within its agreed interim borders until a final-status agreement is reached through a negotiated settlement. The key word here is “negotiated”. Not unilateral, negotiated.

The new Left-wing Swedish government, a bunch of pitiful amateurs dabbling in statecraft and including hardened Islamists, extremists deported from Israel for violating anti-terror laws, an illegal Muslim immigrant, tax evaders, a gross violator of Sweden’s strict environmental laws (this is the Minister for the Environment!) and even one clairvoyant, decided that not one of the conditions of the Oslo Accords needed to be fulfilled by the Palestinian Arab coalition government.

This Palestinian Arab government consists of Fatah in Ramallah and Hamas in Gaza. The Gaza wing of the Palestinian regime has conducted three wars against Israel’s civilians since 2005, firing rockets and mortars indiscriminately on Israeli civilians, a total of 14,000 such missiles thus far. These attacks constitute a clear breach of the Oslo Accords and of the Geneva Conventions governing the rules of war between warring parties. The Fatah faction of the Palestinian coalition government, meanwhile, favours the murder of Jews by means of knifing attacks, arson attacks, shooting attacks, rock-throwing attacks, and vehicular attacks whereby a car, van or truck is used to mow down Jews waiting at bus stops, tram stops and pedestrian crossings.

This is the Palestinian Arab regime that the Swedish government has decided is worthy of recognition and the status of “independent statehood”. Recognition that specifically opposes the universally agreed and hard-won Oslo Accords.

Palestinian Arab violence against civilian Israelis accordingly spiked from the very date of Sweden’s recognition of the “Independent State of Palestine” – a state that has no borders, no capital, no currency, no foreign policy other than the liquidation of UN member state Israel, and no independent economy that does not rely overwhelmingly on Israel for commerce, industry, jobs, electricity (the outstanding electricity bill thus far totals half a billion dollars), water supply, sewage treatment. Indeed, even Fatah and Hamas, organisations that openly declare their hatred of Israel and their determination to liquidate the Jewish state, nonetheless send their own family members to Israel for medical care since the “Independent State of Palestine” does not have the facilities to look after its own dependents.

Despite this, following Sweden’s encouragement of Palestinian Arab intransigence and extremism and Swedish assurance that there will be no political or financial penalty for Palestinian Arab bestiality against innocent Jewish civilians, many racist attacks have been carried out by people loyal to Fatah - that's Mahmud Abbas’s faction - and Hamas (the Islamist IS allies who hold sway in Gaza). Last week, a 26 year old woman died of her wounds, inflicted by a Palestinian Arab who drove a van into her and then stabbed her repeatedly just to make sure she died. She was targeted because she was Jewish. On the same day, a 20 year old off-duty soldier waiting for a train was stabbed to death. The week before, a 3 month old infant and a young girl were mown down by a Palestinian Arab who deliberately drove into them to kill them. As I write this, there is news that another Jew has been stabbed in Jerusalem.

So here’s a question for Margot Wallström, Foreign Minister of Sweden: Margot, you just threw your country's pensioners onto the scrapheap by taking 1.5 BILLION kronor of their hard-earned pension savings and giving that money to Fatah and Hamas because these two regimes, you say, represent the Palestinian government and their newly recognized Palestinian state.

Still pleased with that decision, Margot?

The world of folly, Swedish meatballs, moose and the Middle East

...Like any wild animal, moose are entirely unpredictable. But they are also known for not seeing things well or clearly at close range because their eyes are set on the sides of their heads, creating a large blind spot right in front of them. Having spent so much time focusing on moose, perhaps the Swedes have adopted their mindset, in the process forgetting just how dangerous and treacherous the rest of the world can be, or how precarious Israel’s position is.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/Jpost..
03 November '14..

In an act of inexplicable folly, the Swedish government decided last week to formally recognize a state that does not exist, has no finite borders and which fails to meet even the minimal criteria for statehood under international law.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom announced that, “Today, the government takes the decision to recognize the state of Palestine. It is an important step that confirms the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.”

While three other European Union (EU) countries – Hungary, Slovakia and Poland – already recognize a Palestinian state, they took this step prior to becoming members.

Thus, Sweden now holds the ignominious distinction of being the first EU nation to confer recognition on the “state of Palestine.”

What makes this step even more mystifying is the haste with which it was taken. Newly-elected Prime Minister Stefan Lofven took office barely a month ago, and already in his swearing-in speech he stated that Sweden would soon recognize a Palestinian state, much to the chagrin of Israel and the United States.

And just what, you might be wondering, is the reasoning behind the Swedes’ decision? When declaring the move last week, Wallstrom called it “a contribution to a better future” for the Middle East and asserted that, “Some will state this decision comes too soon. I am afraid, rather, that it is too late.”

This is absolute hogwash, and Wallstrom’s logic is just as rancid as a leftover Swedish meatball.

Granting recognition to “Palestine” is a gift to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, one that he most certainly does not deserve.

Abbas, who forged a unity government with the Hamas terrorist organization, has been openly stirring up unrest in Jerusalem, inciting Palestinians to riot over the issue of the Temple Mount.

Rewarding him with recognition is nothing less than rewarding terror and intransigence.

How Red-Green Sweden Recognized Palestine as a 'State'

...Finally, one wonders whether the Swedish Red-Greens have paid heed to the present upheavals in the Middle East, the disintegration of Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, and the similarities and links between the Palestinian factions and such groups as Lebanese Hezbollah, Syrian Al-Nusra, and ISIS. What brought Sweden to this new low?

A Swedish MP wearing a keffiyeh
that displays the whole of Israel
replaced by a single state of Palestine.

Michel Gurfinkiel..
PJ Media..
October 10, 2014..
Link: http://www.meforum.org/4851/red-green-sweden-recognizes-palestine-as-state

It would be farfetched to expect most political leaders to be thoroughly knowledgeable of the issues they deal with, especially when it comes to international affairs; or to expect them to be particularly rational and ethical. Still, the new Swedish cabinet's decision to recognize "Palestine" as a state must be singled out for its nastiness and nuttiness.

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, who leads a minority "Red-Green" coalition of social democrats and greens, explained the move in the following terms:

The conflict between Israel and Palestine can only be solved with a two-state solution, negotiated in accordance with international law. A two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence. Sweden will therefore recognize the state of Palestine.

Sweden is a member of the European Union, and members are supposed to coordinate their diplomatic moves, especially on such touchy matters as the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict. So far, the EU has not made any common decision about recognizing Palestine as a state. Sweden's Red-Greens do not seem to be aware of such niceties.

One wonders whether the Red-Greens are aware that a state, to be recognized, needs a clearly defined population, a clearly defined territory, and an effective government that can maintain law and order. None of the above is true of "Palestine," whatever the current meaning of that word.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) — an autonomous authority established in 1994 according to a Declaration of Principles between the state of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (the Oslo Accords), and the closest thing to a "state of Palestine" – does not effectively rule the West Bank and Gaza, the two distinct territories that pass as "Palestinian territory." As an effective government, the PA should be able to maintain law and order there. Everybody knows this is not the case in Gaza, which has been controlled by Hamas and Islamic Jihad since 2007. Yet this is hardly the case in the West Bank, either. Parts of it are still administered by Israel and enjoy Israel's Supreme Court-monitored law and order. In other parts of the West Bank, PA rule — reduced, for all practical matters, to Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party rule — survives only thanks to a modicum of security cooperation with Israel.

In response to Prime Minister Löfven's statement, one must ask how the two-state solution can work if one of the considered states – the Palestinian state-to-be — is openly opposed to it. Hamas and Islamic Jihad clearly say they will never recognize Israel. The nominal PA government and Fatah say they will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state – implying their strategy is to turn Israel into a binational state. This implication is coherent with their insistence that the so-called 1948 Palestinian refugees (a population they estimate as six million people) must be granted the right to return to Israel proper. When combined with the 1.7 million Israeli Arabs, this number would overwhelm the 6.6 million Israeli Jews.

A two-state solution is even more fictitious in the light of last summer's Gaza-Israel war. Hamas and Islamic Jihad started that war, resorting to the indiscriminate bombing of Israeli civilian-populated areas and attempts to abduct or kill Israeli civilians. Both sets of operations failed, but the fact remains that they were criminal and genocidal in character.

Britain, Sweden and recognizing a State of Palestine

...Sweden's governments have done many good things for their people. They have created a healthy and balanced economy and a sound social framework. But, as in so many places across Europe, political openness to diversity, with an emphasis on national culture, has given way to waves of political correctness and multicultural denial. Many politicians and members of the public have come to see the Palestinians as the world's underdogs, who, however ugly their behaviour, can do no wrong; and to portray Israel as a Nazi state that persecutes the Palestinians and "steals" the land -- mystifyingly -- of a people, the Jews, who have lived on that land for roughly 4,000 years.

Denis MacEoin..
Gatestone Institute..
10 October '14..

The British parliament, on October 13th, may be debating whether or not to recognize a Palestinian state.

Recognizing what in all likelihood would quickly become yet another Islamic terrorist state can only set a precedent that could have a disastrous impact on future negotiations and international law, and lead to the establishment yet more launching pads for people dedicated to violent jihad, not just in Israel, but, as they now openly admit, worldwide, including Britain and Sweden.

On October 3, newly elected Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven used his inaugural speech to announce a decision to recognize the "state of Palestine." In what must rank as one of the most self-contradictory statements in political history, he declared: "A two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence. Sweden will therefore recognise the state of Palestine."

One might be forgiven for thinking that to become Prime Minister of an important First World country takes considerable political, social and diplomatic skills and some intelligence. Has Mr. Löfven never heard of the 1967 Khartoum Declaration that declares "No peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel"? The Palestinians, and evidently the entire Arab world, still think like this, so where is the "mutual recognition" to appear from? While Palestinians and their supporters (including the Swedish left) chant, "Palestine will be free; From the river to the sea" (meaning that Israel will be replaced by a Palestinian state that, under Hamas, is more than likely to turn into another Islamic State), where is this "will to peaceful co-existence" supposed to come from? From the Hamas Charter, perhaps, whose thirteenth article unequivocally declares: "Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement.... There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors"? Or perhaps an inspiring example may be found in the twenty or so peace proposals Palestinian leaders have turned down flat in the past sixty-six years? Will Sweden's recognition bring peace and a "two-state solution" any closer? Or will it give the Palestinians greater encouragement to fight against the provisions of international law that legitimize Israel's right to exist and the call for two states in 1947? Will the Palestinians continue their demands for a one-state solution, giving them Gaza, the West Bank and all of Israel -- with the Jews now in Israel, Judaea and Samaria maybe allowed to live there on sufferance, as "tolerated" second-class-citizens, or dhimmis like the Christians, Kurds and Yazidis in Iraq, the Kurds in Syria, or the Copts in Egypt? Or will a current Palestinian state mean the death or expulsions of all the Jews in Israel -- for has not Mahmoud Abbas, the chief beneficiary of these ill-thought recognitions, declared: "In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli - civilian or soldier - on our lands"?

There is no Palestinian state to recognize in the first place: the Palestinians rejected the state they were offered by the UN in 1947, they have continued to reject it, and have for years been in breach of UN Resolution 242, to which they had agreed, that "Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force" since they demand withdrawal of Israel to the pre-1967 borders, something the resolution was carefully drafted to avoid. Unless Israel is given "secure and recognized boundaries." Such blasé repudiation of an internationally binding commitment is a breach only a totally illiterate politician would fail to see. So long as Israel is a state surrounded by violent countries such as Iran, Syria, Iranian-controlled Lebanon, Yemen -- as well as jihadist movements from Hamas to Hizbullah to Islamic State to Islamic Jihad, all overtly dedicated to its destruction -- no Palestinian state can be recognized.

Sweden was one of the best, most liberal of democracies, a perfect mix of modern social democracy and conservatism. In 2013, The Economist voted it and the other Nordic countries as the best-governed countries in the world -- with Sweden at the top. Sweden guaranteed freedom of the press in 1766; and its social advances from the 1840s onwards made it a model for democracy and individual freedoms. During World War II, it saved the lives of around 8,000 Jews from Denmark and Norway. It remains a creative country, producing great drama and a host of young musicians. On the face of it, Sweden seems to be as progressive and forward thinking a country among the Western democracies. So what went wrong?

Two things seem to have created problems in the land of the reindeer: the arrival of fundamentalist Islam and the introduction of political correctness and multiculturalism into a moderate socialist system that, ironically, made (and still makes) Sweden progressive and economically successful by embracing capitalism.

When Europe loves ‘Palestine’

...because according to the conjunction of post-colonialist doctrine and political correctness that has infected the dying European societies, every group that claims indigenous status (except for Jews) has a right to sovereignty. And the more violently that group behaves, the stronger their claim.

New Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven
 makes inaugural address calling for
recognition of ‘Palestine’

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
05 October '14..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2014/10/europe-loves-palestine/

European governments, in part responding to pressure to appeal to Muslim residents, to appease oil-producing nations — who haven’t stopped wanting to weaken Israel despite their worries about Iran — or perhaps because of anti-Jewish feelings that are under the surface, are pressing harder than ever to give another piece of the land of Israel to the Arabs.

In a brilliant example of non-sequitur argument, Sweden’s new Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven announced in his inauguration speech that

The conflict between Israel and Palestine can only be solved by a two-state solution, negotiated in accordance with international law. It must guarantee both the Palestinians [sic] and Israelis’ legitimate demands for national sovereignty and security …

A two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence. Sweden will therefore recognise the state of Palestine.

This is the first time a sitting member of the EU has recognized ‘Palestine’, a non-state that has no borders, economy, control of its population, or legitimate government (elections are four years overdue in the Palestinian Authority). Nevertheless, international recognition is one of the most important prerequisites for statehood, and Sweden’s action will be significant.

It should be obvious that Lofven’s statement makes little sense. Palestinian demands for sovereignty do not come from a desire for peaceful coexistence — otherwise there would already be a Palestinian state — but to make Israeli security, and ultimately Jewish sovereignty, impossible.

The ‘legitimate demands for national sovereignty’ made by Palestinian Arabs are not equivalent to those of Israel, because they are disingenuous. They are part of a program to deny Jewish sovereignty and to possess the land and property of the Jews of Israel. A “two-state solution” as envisaged by the Arabs and doubtless by Lofven involves Israel ceding control over areas that are essential to its security.

Sweden’s Nordea Bank and the rather dubious ethics of anti-Semitism

...So here’s a suggestion for people who are truly concerned about ethics and principles and are not particularly in favour of tacit anti-Semitism or overtly anti-Jewish boycotts lamely disguised as moral outrage: if you or your company bank with Sweden’s Nordea Bank, demand an immediate cessation of your bank’s involvement with all the above countries/regimes/groups – or move your funds. All of them. Immediately.

Ilya Meyer..
Times of Israel..
02 February '14..

So Sweden’s Nordea Bank wishes to divest from Israel owing to what it calls ethical concerns, specifically “possible violations of international norms” with regard to Israel’s relationship with the racist Palestinian Authority and the PA’s desire to create a new judenrein state in the Jewish provinces of Judea and Samaria.

However, the same Nordea Bank has absolutely no ethical, moral or other qualms about investing massively in China, which illegally invaded and illegally occupies Tibet these past 5 decades and has carried out the ethnic cleansing of several hundred thousand Tibetans from their homeland. Not a problem for Nordea Bank.

The Same Nordea Bank also has absolutely no ethical, moral or other qualms about investing massively in Turkey, which illegally invaded and illegally occupies almost half of Cyprus (an EU member state, no less!). Turkey has also perpetrated genocide against its ethnic Armenian minority and to this day treats its Kurdish minority in the most appalling manner. What is more, not for the first time, Turkey just last week carried out a cross-border air attack on neigbouring Syria. No problem for Nordea Bank.

Nor does Nordea Bank have any qualms about investing massively in those other beacons of democracy – Egypt during and after the (in hindsight possibly relatively benign?) dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, and Ukraine, two countries that are currently imploding on account of legion human rights abuses carried out by their dictatorial regimes.

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.

PC (political correctness) in the service of burning Israel down

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
13 April '13..




The town of Jönköping is Sweden's ninth-largest. Locals call it the Jerusalem of Sweden because of its many churches. Swedish Match Industries, a major company with a historical impact on global markets got started there, so it's small surprise to find this intro on the company's website:

The ability to make fire has always been vital to human life. Yet it was not until the 19th century that the cheap safety match was invented [and] became known around the world for its high quality and safety.

Burning things is evidently on the minds of today's Jönköping townsfolk. A small business called Socialist Book Cafe, or Bokcafét i Jönköping in the local language (Svavelsticksgränd 7, Jönköping, Sweden, phone +46 36 12 56 70), operates on the premises of a cultural center owned and operated by the Jönköping municipality. It sells things besides coffee. Things that are connected with its long tradition of fire. Israel-focused things, like the t-shirt below.

This is not your grandfather's Sweden. Old-time values of tolerance and open-mindedness are under serious challenge in today's Sweden.

Swedish mayor who opposes anti-Israel vitriol attacked | April 12, 2013 | (JTA) A Swedish mayor working to stop anti-Israel propaganda from being sold at a municipal cultural center was assaulted. Mats Green, mayor of Jonkoping, was lightly wounded in an attack April 7 outside his home when two men struck him and kicked him, the news site nyheter24 reported. Green, a politician from the center-right Moderate Party, said he could not identify his attackers. But local police suspect the background to the attack is Green’s efforts to prevent the sale of T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Burn, Israel, burn” at the Socialist Book Cafe, a shop operating inside a city-owned cultural center. The shirts sell for about $40. For three years, Green has argued that the shop undermines the city’s values and should move out. The matter will be brought to a vote by the city council on April 26. “It seems there is a majority for ending the cafe’s activity under city auspices, so right now the debate is escalating,” Green said. “It is important that such calls, to destroy a country and its people, not appear on municipal grounds. I don’t want our city to be associated with anti-Semitism in the same way that has happened in other cities in Sweden.” The Socialist Book Cafe did not reply to requests for comment.

(Continue)

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Ilya Meyer's "You know you’re living in Sweden when…

Ilya Meyer..
ilyameyer.com..
05 February '13..



You know you’re living in Sweden when…

… the Egyptian media report that Lebanon’s Hezbollah has been officially identified as having carried out the bus bombing that killed Israeli civilians in Bulgaria last year.

…the Lebanese media report that Lebanon’s Hezbollah has been officially identified as having carried out the bus bombing that killed Israeli civilians in Bulgaria last year.

… the Palestinian Authority media report that Lebanon’s Hezbollah has been officially identified as having carried out the bus bombing that killed Israeli civilians in Bulgaria last year.

… Al Arabiya reports that Lebanon’s Hezbollah has been officially identified as having carried out the bus bombing that killed Israeli civilians in Bulgaria last year.

Swedes have had enough anti-Israel media prejudice

On Sunday 9th December this year a rally was held outside the offices of Aftonbladet, a Swedish tabloid equally well known for its vicious anti-Israel stance as for its peddling of raw anti-Semitic vitriol.

Ilya Meyer..
ilyameyer.com..
12 December '12..

The theme of the rally was “Enough is Enough!” – no more media prejudice against the Jewish state, no more anti-Israel lies in the media, no more withholding of news that may explain Israel’s position in a neutral or objective light.

In a biting minus 15 degrees, supporters of democracy, ethics and principle gathered together outside the front door of Aftonbladet to express their disapproval of the Swedish media’s blatant prejudice against the Jewish state. True to form, Aftonbladet totally ignored the event taking place on its doorstep – it never figured in their reporting. If it doesn’t suit the paper’s political agenda, it simply didn’t happen. Such is the Pravda-esque state of what passes for journalism in Sweden.

Thankfully, with the advent of the electronic age the dinosaurs of the Swedish media are no longer able to exercise their decades-old monopoly on news dissemination. Accordingly, several media sites from around the world are publishing news of the rally. There were three speeches at the event: an introduction by Hanna Zion, a thought-provoking speech by Dmitri Vasserman, and my speech, below, which spotlighted what the media have done here in Sweden and what they failed to do.

All three speeches were in Swedish. The English translation of my speech follows below.

The rally was organised by Anna Berg, Hanna Zion, Natan Gelber and Kim Milrell together with stoppabojkott.se.

"Blame the Victim" - Honing Anti-Semitism in France and Sweden

Shoshana Bryen..
Gatestone Institute..
19 October '12..

A wave of anti-Jewish violence has taken place in France and Sweden over the past few weeks. The difference in government response is notable, and yet there is something similarly disquieting about their actions. The Swedish government alternately denies the problem, blames the Jews and blames Israel -- it recently funded a book on Israeli "apartheid". The French are more complicated. French counter-terror police have been good at tracking domestic radical Islamists, but the government has made overtly anti-Israel gestures that appear to be nothing so much as "compensation" to its increasingly angry and radical Muslim community and to the Arab world.

For the 600 Jews of Malmo, living alongside 60,000 Muslims, Jewish life has been difficult for years, with harassment of individuals and vandalism of the cemetery and synagogue. What makes it harder is a city administration that believes the Jews are asking for it. In a 2010 interview, Mayor Ilmar Reepalu told Skanska Dagbladet, [Jews] "have the possibility to affect the way they are seen by society," urging the community to "distance itself" from Israel. "Instead, the community chose to hold a pro-Israel demonstration," he said, adding that such a move "may convey the wrong message to others." He said, "There haven't been any attacks on Jewish people, and if Jews from the city want to move to Israel that is not a matter for Malmo."

Presented with information that Jews had, indeed, been attacked in Malmo, the mayor retreated just a step and said, "We accept neither Zionism nor anti-Semitism or other forms of ethnic discrimination." Zionism thus defined becomes the reason people in Malmo attack Jews -- who should be distancing themselves from "ethnic discrimination" rather than supporting Israel, according to Repaalu.

Interesting that Swedish FM Carl Bildt talks about “immaturity”!

Ilya Meyer..
ilyameyer.com..
15 October '12..

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has made a career out of protecting Islamists, using Swedish taxpayer funds to jet off to photo-ops with terror supporters, and shielding Islamists from the fallout of their own actions.

Most recently Carl Bildt was the only EU foreign minister to block heightened economic sanctions against Iran, whose regime openly advocates the destruction of UN member state Israel. Iran is currently acquiring suspected nuclear weapons technology for that purpose.

An Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, revealed that Bildt may be advocating this soft stance on Iran for crass financial reasons – Sweden’s telecom giant Ericsson has a massive contract with Iran’s Irancell and Swedish jobs may be in the balance. Carl Bildt, whose level of adolescent immaturity can be judged by the fact that he conducts his nation’s foreign policy on Twitter, says “This is not how I think mature nations should interact with each other.”