Israel Matzav

Swedish foreign minister compares Netanyahu to Hamas

Israeli diplomats are furious over a radio interview yesterday with Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt in which Bildt compares Israeli opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu with Hamas.

In an interview with a Swedish radio station, Bildt was asked how it was possible for Israel to make peace with the Palestinians while Hamas controlled the Gaza Strip.

"It is possible to make peace without Hamas the same way it is possible to make peace without Netanyahu on the Israeli side," Bildt said.

Israeli diplomatic officials called the comparison "chutzpah" and said that Bildt had a long history of making pro-Palestinian statements.

"It is a horrible and stupid statement that displays complete ignorance about the Middle East," a Foreign Ministry official told The Jerusalem Post. "He clearly does not understand the difference between the leader of an Israeli political party and a group that is engaging in the terror that threatens Europe as much as Israel."

While the comparison is odious, I'm more surprised to see 'Israeli diplomats' coming to Netanyahu's defense than I am to see that Bildt made the comments. Both Bildt and Sweden have made comments like this before. Sweden is a member of something called the Negotiations Support Unit, a group of European countries who are encouraging the 'Palestinians' not to compromise on the 'right of return,' and instead to flood the state of Israel with 'refugees' so as to do demographically what they could not do militarily. Other members of this group (in case you are wondering) include Britain, Norway, Denmark and Holland. And Sweden was where an Israeli ambassador would have been prosecuted - but for his diplomatic status - for unplugging an 'art exhibit' honoring a suicide bomber.

Netanyahu, on the other hand, has been lambasted in the Knesset and the media here recently for allowing a wealthy Jew to pay the costs of his vacation public relations trip to England two summers ago in which he spent the entire time speaking on behalf of the government's conduct of the war in Lebanon (before a lot of people realized how badly the government was running the war, Netanyahu was playing the loyal opposition). No 'Israeli diplomats' have come to Netanyahu's defense. Only Manchester millionaire Joshua Rowe has.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:52 AM