This is rich... Guess which country is being threatened into complying with Sharia law....
A Muslim terrorist group is threatening a 9/11-type attack in Norway if a section of Oslo isn't turned into Sharia-compliant territory.
The Norwegian news portal VG Nett is reporting that a Muslim terrorist group, Ansar al-Sunna’,
is threatening that if a section of the nation's capitol isn't
transformed into a sharia-complaint Muslim nation, an attack rivaling
9/11 will be launched upon the Scandinavian nation.
VG Nett has stated that the Norwegian Police Security Service (Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste - PST) is already familiar with many members of this particular terror group.
As translated by Michael Laudahn,
"If norwegian soldiers can take planes to Afghanistan, then Osama and Mohammed can also take planes to Norway, inshaAllah.
Now, the government must wake up and assume responsibility, before
this war spreads to Norway. Before the counterpart reacts. Before
moslems take the step necessary.
Do not confuse the moslems’ silence with weakness. Do not profit from
the moslems’ patience. Do not force us to do something that can be
avoided. This is not a threat, only the words of truth. The words of
justice.
A warning that the consequences can be fatal. A warning about a 9/11
on norwegian ground, or larger attacks than the one carried out on 22
july. This is for your own good and in your own best interest.’
We do not want to be a part of norwegian society. And we do not
consider it necessary either to move away from Norway, because we were
born and grew up here. And Allah’s earth belongs to everybody.
But let Grønland become ours. Bar this city quarter and let us
control it the way we wish to do it. This is the best for both parts.
We do not wish to live together with dirty beasts like you."
'22 July' is of course a reference to the attacks carried out on that date three years ago by Anders Breivik, a 'normal Norwegian boy,' who set off a bomb in Oslo and then went to a youth camp in Utoya and opened fire with a machine gun on a camp run by the ruling Labor party, murdering approximately 98 people. The Muslim terrorists would like to exceed that total.
And why did I say that this entire story is 'rich'? Because Norway is arguably the most anti-Semitic country in Europe. Here's what was going on in that youth camp the day before Breivik committed his terror attack:
Turkey and Norway - two of the most anti-Semitic countries on earth today outside of the Arab world - are offering to pay for a Gaza seaport through which Hamas can bring unlimited weapons.
Turkey and Norway have expressed their willingness in principle to
operate a seaport in the Hamas enclave of Gaza, according to the
Palestinian delegation in Cairo.
According to a report in Israel Today, the government
in Ankara has already announced its intention to send to Gaza over 3,000
prefabricated houses to be quickly assembled, accommodating local Arab
families whose homes were destroyed during Operation Protective Edge.
The seaport proposal gives international credence to Hamas's
unprecedented demands for unlimited transportation and import access.
The terror group has already demanded an international airport in Gaza, a
demand which has been categorically denied thus far in the negotiating
process due to its security threat on Israel.
Turkish Prime Minister and newly elected President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan has become an increasingly vocal supporter of Hamas, and has
heavily criticized Israel since Operation Protective Edge began 35 days
ago.
Indeed, Erdogan's country has reportedly become Hamas's lead sponsor since 2013.
...
Norway, meanwhile, called on Israel as an "occupier" to show "restraint"
in the escalation leading up to the current conflict, claiming that
reacting to the rain of rocket fire on Israel would be violating
international law.
“As the occupying power in the West Bank, Israel has a special responsibility under international law," Foreign Minister Borge Brende charged in July. "Neither
statements of its intent to step up its settlement policy in the West
Bank and East Jerusalem, which is in violation of international law, nor
major offensives against Gaza are the way forward."
Norwegian newspaper prints anti-Semitic cartoon, compares reaction to riots over Mohamed cartoons
You can register your outrage by writing directly to Dagbladet's editor-in-chief John Arne Markussen at john.arne.markussen@dagbladet.no.
The cartoon Dagbladet published ostensibly depicts the circumcision of an infant, but the sinister-looking people carrying out the ritual are actually cutting off the baby's toes and stabbing his head with a demonic-looking fork. On the right side of the cartoon, you see police arriving on the scene, but after being assured that the practice is simply an expression of religious belief, they leave.
"Mistreating? No this is tradition, an important part of our belief!" the woman is shown telling the policemen."Belief? Oh yes, then it is all right," the officer responds while the second policeman apologizes for the interference.
The men in the cartoon bear a striking resemblance to the hideous caricatures of Jews in classic anti-Semitic cartoons, right down to their black garb and beards. And they are holding books -- ostensibly volumes of Torah -- that are soaked in the blood of the screaming child.
After this cartoon appeared, people around the world wrote to Dagbladet to complain. Not only did the newspaper defend the anti-Semitic cartoon, but they compared those complaining to the massive, global Muslim riots after publication of the cartoons depicting Mohammed. These were violent, deadly riots and it is a outrageous comparison.
Here's what they said:
"We witnessed this when Jyllands-Posten -- and subsequently Dagbladet and other Norwegian Newspapers -- printed the satirical cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. We now have similar reactions to a cartoon that Dagbladet printed last week."
Where was there rioting? In fact, where was there a single act of violence in reaction to this cartoon?
What an ignorant comparison.
Let's go to the videotape.
You can register your outrage by writing directly to Dagbladet's
editor-in-chief John Arne Markussen at john.arne.markussen@dagbladet.no.
Best-selling Norwegian author blasts her government's open checkbook for the 'Palestinians'
Hanne Nabintu Herland is a Norwegian historian of comparative religions and a bestselling author. In this article that she wrote for Aftenposten and translated into English for Gates of Vienna, she reports on the results of Norway's policy of maintaining an open checkbook for the 'Palestinians.'
Let’s take a look at the statistics: Norway is one of the smallest
countries in the world, and one of the largest contributors to the
Palestinian Authority (PA) and others, with annual donations of over 700
Million NOK. Especially since the current left-wing Labor government
took office in 2005, the donations have exploded. What are these sums
spent on?
Recently the remuneration for suicide bombers was
tripled. The Hamas terrorist who killed 30 Israelis in 2002 by now
receives 20,000 NOK a month, according to The Times of Israel last September the 9th. Those who have carried out the worst attacks against innocent civilians receive the highest pay.
Intelligence
and Terrorism Information Center figures from 2005 show that
Palestinians have conducted 25,770 terrorist attacks, 147 suicide
attacks leading to 1,100 dead Israelis and 7,500 wounded between 2000
and 2005. Fatah conducted 214 acts of terrorism in 2003-2004 alone,
according to 2005 Terrorism Review.
Gross
corruption charges have for a long time been directed at the PLO, which
already by 1993 was the richest terrorist organization in the world,
according to the British National Criminal Intelligence Service, having assets of ten billion dollars and an annual income of approximately two billion dollars. The Daily Telegraph
reported in 1999 that the PLO had secretly invested over 50 billion
dollars around the world. Still, Norway has continuously broken bread
with these people.
The Norwegian taxpayers’ money has amongst
other things financed a number of visits from the Muslim Brotherhood,
Hamas, Fatah, not to forget the PLO, coming to Oslo. Not to mention the
intense activities of Norway’s previous Foreign Minister, Jonas
Gahr-Store, as he has travelled extensively between different Islamist
groups in the Middle East, having secret meetings in 2007 with Hamas’
leader, Khaled Meshaal, which shocked the West. Having publicly denied
these meetings, the Norwegian TV station, TV2 forced him to admit to
lying about this in 2010, an incident which is referred to in Aftenposten.
The PA Minister Faisal Husseini said to Al-Safir
in 2001 that “Our eyes will continue to aspire to the strategic goal,
namely, to Palestine from the river [Jordan] to the sea. Whatever we get
now cannot make us forget this supreme truth.” And Hamas’ message from
the internet: “We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that no
blood is better than the Jews’.” In this perspective it is interesting
to note that the pluralist liberal democracy of Israel is the only
country in the Middle East where gays are protected legally, having
annual gay pride parades and religious liberty, and where Christian
minorities are growing and the nation enjoys a free press and an active
public debate. But these we do not support in Norway.
It's refreshing to see someone prominent in Norway recognizing the pervidious role that Norway plays in supporting the 'Palestinian Authority.' Unfortunately, the motivation for that role is anti-Semitism, so it's not just a question of convincing rational people that they have to stop spending money like this.
In an email to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, a leading Israeli expert on Norwegian anti-Semitism, said, “Orwell wrote in 1942 that pacifism was objectively pro-fascist, because of its hampering the war efforts of the allies. The ‘peace scholar’ Galtung uses a different method to help Israel’s totalitarian and murderous enemies.
“Without any proof, he associates the Mossad with the Norwegian mass murderer Breivik, he falsely suggests that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are genuine and so on. His attitude fits that of significant parts of the Norwegian cultural elite. Galtung has merited his place in textbooks of 21st century anti-Semitism.”
The Humanist magazine printed Galtung’s remarks. Galtung wrote in one of the exchanges that Jews control the American media.
“Six Jewish companies control 96% of the media,” he wrote, including the names of journalists, publishers, TV networks and movie studios that he claims are controlled by Jews.
He also wrote that “70% of the professors at the 20 most-important American universities are Jewish.”
As we have seen severaltimes over the last year and a half, anti-Semitism is alive and well in Norway.
Norwegians and Swedes attempting to break Gaza blockade
Well, here we go again. A group of Norwegians and Swedes is attempting to open Gaza for weapons import by breaking Israel's sea blockade of the Islamic militancy.
"We have the same goal as the previous flotillas, to put an end to the blockade of Gaza by challenging the Israeli navy," said Torstein Dahle, the leader of the Norwegian section of the activist group "Ship to Gaza."
"This time around it will be an easy task for the Israelis to stop us because we will be so few and strictly non-violent," Dahle told Reuters at Oslo harbor.
If that's how they feel, you have to wonder why they're bothering. Of course, one cannot rely on claims to non-violence. The Mavi Marmara claimed to be non-violent too.
The SV Estelle, a 53-metre vessel backed mainly by Swedish and Norwegian groups, will sail from Oslo on Tuesday, and organizers hope several other ships will join it during its journey before it reaches waters off Gaza in October.
Who the heck is supporting these people? Can you take two months off from work like that? I can't.
Son of Israeli living in Norway branded by anti-Semitic classmate
We all knew that the Norwegians are anti-Semites. They just proved it again. A Norwegian high school student whose father is an Israeli was branded by an anti-Semitic classmate at a year-end barbecue on Monday. And no one in Norway is likely to do a darned thing about it.
MIFF has gained access to a private cell phone image showing the result of the attack which took place at a school barbecue for the senior class, this Monday (June 11, 2012). The 16-year-old boy was enjoying his grilled chicken when a red-hot coin was placed on his neck by a fellow student, an ethnic Norwegian. The coin made a very visible burns on the boys neck.
- It was one of the regular anti-Semites [in the son's class] who heated the coin on the grill and pressed it onto the neck of my son. The red hot coin burned through to the flesh, the mother told miff.no on Monday night. On Tuesday afternoon she explains that a teacher observed the incident and told the culprit “you’re mad.” Yet no representative from the school made contact with the mother afterwards.
...
This fits into a pattern from the school, the mother said. Already in March 2010 she told NRK how school staff failed to intervene, but applied a policy of avoidance.
- I see this avoidance as a dangerous development among both ethnic Norwegian and immigrant groups. And that nobody, neither teachers or principals, intervene in this matter. There is a refusal to address these issues, it is too sensitive, she told the NRK at the time.
The interview from 2010, on Norwegian national news where the mothers identity was kept anonymous, is still available at nrk.no.
His mother told about “clear anti-Semitic harassment, expressed verbally and physically.”
- They say they are going to kill all the Jews, and use offensive language such as “Jewish pigs” and “Jewish satan” she added.
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Wednesday, May 2.
1) Terror's enablers
After Anders Behring Breivik carried out his terrible massacre last year, columnist Roger Cohen knew who was at fault. In a column, Breivik and his enablers he wrote:
Breivik has many ideological fellow travelers on both sides of the Atlantic. Theirs is the poison in which he refined his murderous resentment. The enablers include Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, who compared the Koran to “Mein Kampf” on his way to 15.5 percent of the vote in the 2010 election; the surging Marine Le Pen in France, who uses Nazi analogies as she pours scorn on devout Muslims; far-rightist parties in Sweden and Denmark and Britain equating every problem with Muslim immigration; Republicans like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Representative Peter King, who have found it politically opportune to target “creeping Shariah in the United States” at a time when the middle name of the president is Hussein; U.S. church pastors using their bully pulpits week after week to say America is a Christian nation under imminent threat from Islam.
Everyone who was critical or cautionary about the rise of political Islam was an enabler. There was no subtlety in Cohen's blanket indictment. Peter King was as guilty as Marine Le Pen. But consider the following he wrote in a column he wrote two years ago, Hard Mideast Truths:
This, too, I believe: Through violence, anti-Semitic incitation, and annihilationist threats, Palestinian factions have contributed mightily to the absence of peace and made it harder for America to adopt the balance required. But the impressive recent work of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank shows that Palestinian responsibility is no oxymoron and demands of Israel a response less abject than creeping annexation.
The extremism that is regularly broadcast over the official Palestinian media is attributed to Palestinian "factions,' not to its government. Those who turn a blind eye to the incitement (what in the world is "incitation?") deserve a lot more blame for the lack of peace in the Middle East. Cohen, though, is content to blame "creeping annexation."
Now comes word from Norway that the creator of "peace studies," is a raving antisemitic lunatic. No major American newspaper has seen fit to report on Johann Galtung's pronouncements. Fortunately, as Ynet reports, at least publications in Norway have noticed:
Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet published in October an article by journalist John Faerseth, who attended one of Galtung's lectures at the University of Oslo, where he outlined his doctrine in front of a cheering crowd. Throughout the article, Fearseth slams Galtung, who is dubbed "the father of peace studies", saying the "findings" on which he bases his theories against Jews are "dubious" at best. Norwegian magazine Humanist published a correspondence between Galtung and Fearseth, in which Galtung claimed, as he did several times in the past, that the Jews control world media.
He hinted at links between Anders Behring Breivik’s attack on civilians in Norway and Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. He suggested there was some truth behind the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He said that Jews share some of the blame for what happened at Auschwitz — they had provoked the poor Germans under the Weimar Republic. He suggested that Jews control the American media and academic establishments. The list goes on and on — the kind of remarks that haters call “common sense” and “daring to tell the truth” but that sane people see as hatred, error and bile. Professor Galtung is 82 and perhaps these days like his soul mate Helen Thomas he expresses himself with more freedom and less restraint than in former times. And perhaps the mind is not everything that it once was. But his example demonstrates that the bacillus of Jew-hatred, responsible for centuries of folly and murder before climaxing in the Holocaust and the destruction of half Europe, has not been extirpated. Even among liberal academics who specialize in the study of peace, the flame of hate sometimes burns. There may be some who say that the Professor is not an anti-Semite; he is merely an anti-Zionist whose righteous passion against the sins of Israel drove him momentarily into some incautious language. And they will argue that such a peace oriented fellow could only have been stimulated to such passions by truly unconscionable activities on the part of “the Jews.” That is how such people often talk, and it is always contemptible, always dishonest, always a manifestation of a failure of either character or intellect.
Criticism of Israel these days is so uninformed and vicious (not to mention counterproductive) it's impossible not to ask if there's another motive behind it.
2) I'll take Israeli leaders for $200, Alex
Recently Tzippi Livni, the former head of Israel's Kadima party retired from Knesset. If you had been paying attention to the American media, though, you could be forgiven for being surprised.
Earlier this week, the New York Times reported, Former Israeli Premier Assails Netanyahu on Iran, about a speech disgraced former Prime Minister Olmert gave. A few months earlier, the Times also allowed Olmert to write Peace Now or Never to castigate Netanyahu for his handling of the peace process. With the attention given to these two ex-leaders of Kadima, you might not realize that Prime Minister Netanyahu is in a very strong position to be re-elected, possibly this fall. Barry Rubin writes:
Israel is apparently going to have elections this autumn and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will almost certainly win by a big margin. Understanding why explains a lot about the country that people think they know the most about but in fact comprehend the least. According to polls, Netanyahu’s Likud party may go from 28 to 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset. That may not sound like a big percentage but with around 12 different parties likely to win seats that margin would be sufficient. One key element in this equation is that the country is doing pretty well. True, it faces serious security problems but that’s the norm for Israel. Indeed, with no other trusted leader on the horizon, Netanyahu is the one most trusted to manage that dangerous situation.
I find it hard to believe that a Netanyahu-Mofaz-Lapid-Yechimovich government (with or without Lieberman and religious parties) would truly be any more or less cautious regarding Iran than the current Netanyahu-Barak-Lieberman government. Neither governing constellation is going to run headlong into direct military confrontation with Iran unless absolutely necessary. The result of the upcoming US presidential election in November has more bearing on whether Israel hits Iran than the result of any election in Israel. The same goes for diplomacy on the Palestinian front. Kadima, Labor and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid praty may be declaratively more willing than Israel Beiteinu or Habayit Hayehudi to forgo and swap land in the West Bank, but they are unlikely to find themselves in government without Likud or all of the sudden discover a sensible Palestinian partner with realistic negotiating positions. The public is not going to support any more unilateral withdrawals, and nobody is withdrawing the IDF from Samarian hilltops or the Jordan Valley with an Arab “winter” raging around us. Economic and social policy? Summer protests and tent encampments notwithstanding, all public opinion surveys indicate that the public recognizes Netanyahu as the best economic steward for Israel at this time. His steady hand has helped Israel weather the global financial storms, and in the process he cut the middle class a few breaks too (like free early childhood education).
Mr. Romney, never known for his lack of self-confidence, still recalls the sense of envy he felt watching Mr. Netanyahu effortlessly hold court during the firm’s Monday morning meetings, when consultants presented their work and fielded questions from their colleagues. The sessions were renowned for their sometimes grueling interrogations.
but marred by several paragraphs:
Mr. Romney has suggested that he would not make any significant policy decisions about Israel without consulting Mr. Netanyahu — a level of deference that could raise eyebrows given Mr. Netanyahu’s polarizing reputation, even as it appeals to the neoconservatives and evangelical Christians who are fiercely protective of Israel. ... Martin S. Indyk, a United States ambassador to Israel in the Clinton administration, said that whether intentional or not, Mr. Romney’s statement implied that he would “subcontract Middle East policy to Israel.” “That, of course, would be inappropriate,” he added.
Barbaro treats boasts made by Romney as actual policy in order to suggest that there's something untoward about the friendship between Romney and Netanyahu.
In contrast consider President Obama. As he campaigned four years ago he said:
“I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt a unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you’re anti-Israel and that can’t be the measure of our friendship with Israel,” the Illinois senator and contender for the Democratic presidential nominee told a group of Jewish leaders in Cleveland on Sunday. “If we cannot have an honest dialogue about how do we achieve these goals, then we’re not going to make progress.”
The statement betrayed an ignorance of Israeli politics and suggested that if Likud came to power (as it did a year later) President Obama would be adversarial to the Israeli government. Though there were exceptions, Obama's comment attracted little comment at the time.
Allies are going to work together and will have differences. If the leaders of the respective countries are friendly, presumably the alliance will be more successful.
2) Kofi's latest fail
Usually in an organization, promotions are the results of successes. The United Nations works differently. Certainly, the case of Kofi Annan shows that at the UN, "failure is job 1." Jonathan Schanzer documents them in It's Time to Add Syria to Kofi Annan's Long List of Failures:
THE STRING OF FAILURES begins in 1994, when Annan, then head of peacekeeping, dismissed the warnings of General Romeo Dallaire, commander of the U.N.’s peacekeeping forces in Rwanda, about arms caches that would soon be used for mass murder. In July 1995, with Annan still head of peacekeeping, came another mass murder, this time in Srebrenica. Serbs slaughtered more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims while peacekeepers stood by. During his tenure as U.N. chief, from 1997-2006, his responsibilities included overseeing the Oil-for-Food relief program for Iraq. The program, run by the U.N. from 1996 until Saddam Hussein’s overthrow in 2003, was supposed to ease the pain imposed on Iraq’s people by sanctions targeting Saddam’s regime. Instead, Oil-for-Food evolved into one of the most corrupt failures in the history of humanitarian relief, while Annan urged its expansion and praised its performance.
Now he's repeating his experience in Syria:
Now, as before, Annan is tipping the scales in favor of a murderous regime. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov smugly noted, Annan’s plan includes “no talk about Assad’s departure.” One Syria opposition leader, Burhan Ghalioun, predicts the plan will “waste a month or two of pointless mediation efforts” while buying Assad more time.
3) Doomed to repeat
A fascinating feature at InstaPundit is his newly instituted "Ten years ago on Instapundit" feature. Most of the items point to media bias or malfeasance reminding us that the issues he's been highlighting haven't changed much.
A BUNCH OF PEOPLE have sent me copies of their letters to the Norwegian Embassy protesting the absurd and nasty action of expelling a man from the Norwegian Parliament building for wearing a Star of David, even as many people were wearing Palestinian emblems. The issue was also picked up in Best of the Web today, which also ran a link to the Norwegian Embassy "contacts" page with its item. I think they probably got a fair amount of email on this. Good.
There are a lot of competitors for the title 'most anti-Semitic country in Europe,' but according to Scandanavia expert Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, Norway wins hands down.
“The current Labor/radical left Norwegian government is promoting an extreme one-sided and negative stance toward Israel. It is responsible for creating a politically-correct hatred of Israel among many people in the country. This has made Norway, in my view, the most anti-Semitic country in the West. In Norwegian history, there has never been such an anti-Israeli attitude.”
Hanne Nabintu Herland is a Norwegian academic and a historian of religion. She has authored several successful books. The latest one, Respect, published in February 2012, received a lot of publicity and tops the country’s best seller list.
Yet, there has been complete public silence regarding the sharp criticism she poses in the book against the current leftist government for its biased view on Israel.
Herland says, “Control on public opinion is so strong in Norway that it is questionable whether it can be considered a free democratic state. The Labor Party has widely used the terror attack by Anders Breivik against it on 22 July 2011 to further discriminate against any opposition and shut down public debate.”
She adds: “The Norwegian government indirectly accepts the Hamas agenda where its main goals include ethnic cleansing, terror, and genocide against the Jews. Labor Party Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre regularly defends Hamas in newspapers abroad. In February 2011, he did this in the International Herald Tribune, for instance.
“Last year Støre was caught lying on a live program on Norwegian TV2. There he denied that he held continuous talks with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. Yet Stǿre had to admit this when the reporter told him that Meshaal had mentioned these conversations. What initially may have been an act of naiveté is by now suspect of deliberate malice. In the long term, Støre is tarnishing Norway’s international reputation by acting as a Hamas defender.
“The way Norway funds Hamas with hundreds of millions of Norwegian kroner taxpayer’s money, is pure corruption. When African states buy their way to influence, we call it corruption. But in essence, the Labor Party is practicing the same - billions leave the country in order for Norway to buy friends in foreign states where they otherwise would have little or no influence.
“Despite major anti-Israel propaganda last year, a poll undertaken by Norway’s largest paper Verdens Gang found that 60% of the Norwegian people believes that Israel is right in claiming that coverage of it in Norwegian media is biased. This survey was done after the Israeli embassy in Oslo had filed a complaint against the state broadcasting authority NRK for its biased reporting.
The picture at the top was taken at the Labor party's summer camp last summer the day before Anders Behring Breivik started shooting at the 'campers.' They were preparing to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
It's been a while since I last broke out the flying pig, but I think this one rates. After 70 years, Norway has apologized for its role in sending Jews to death camps during the Holocaust.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg on Friday apologized for Norway's deportations of Jews during the Second World War
"Without relieving the Nazis of their responsibility, it is time for us to acknowledge that Norwegian policemen and other Norwegians took part in the arrest and deportation of Jews," Stoltenberg said.
"Today, I feel it is fitting for me to express our deepest apologies that this could happen on Norwegian soil," the prime minister added, standing on the exact spot where 532 Jews boarded the cargo ship Donau to be taken to the concentration camps.
After Nazi troops invaded Norway on April 9, 1940, it was ruled by a collaborationist government headed by Vidkun Quisling, whose name has since been synonymous with "traitor."
About 772 Jews were deported from Nazi-occupied Norway during the war. Only 34 of them survived.
"The murders were unquestionably carried out by the Nazis," Stoltenberg said, "but it was Norwegians who carried out the arrests, it was Norwegians who drove the trucks ... and it happened in Norway."
"No one, no individual, no minority, should have to live in fear in this country."
One of Norway’s top publishing houses offers a storybook for children whose plot involves a father and daughter who pilots a water tanker from Norway all the way to the WB security fence, and can’t get through because of the evil Israelis. Real sick stuff.
The evidence gathered on both the Tundra Tabloids and Norway, Israel and the Jews websites on Norway, is overwhelming. The Norwegian political system and its culture has been warped by a Leftist cabal of sick minded elitists for decades, and it has left an indelible mark on its society.
I received this via email from the Shomron Liaison Office:
Eliezer Braun of Samaria, Israel will be touring Norway over the next two weeks, promoting an alternate grassroots peace plan for the region known as the “West Bank.” His plan calls for education, democratization, and mutual respect. The speaking tour has been arranged as part of an effort to raise international support before the September 20 UN vote on Palestinian statehood. Mr. Braun argues that a vote for the current plan will create more problems than it solves, with its government-imposed change.
Mr. Braun is the Director of the Shuva Israel’s Interfaith Department, and travels around the world speaking mainly to Christian groups on behalf of Samaria’s communities and raising support for the residents of the “disputed” land. He and his family have been residents of Samaria since moving to Israel from the US in 1983.
Mr. Braun specializes in debunking popular misconceptions about the region and proposes realistic and creative solutions to problems that have plagued the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since its inception. He focuses on the positive impact of the “settlements” on the peace process. On this tour he plans to offer Norwegian citizens clear and abundant reasons to support Israel in the face of worldwide pressure to give up her secure borders to a proven hostile and unreliable “peace partner.”
The Shomron Liaison Office acts as the Samaria region's central representative body to the greater international community.
For list of venues see http://www.yeshuv.org/events/norway-tour-sept-2011
# # #
For more information or to schedule an interview with Eliezer Braun, please contact David Ha’Ivri at 972-3-936-8146 or email haivri@yeshuv.org.
I hope Mr. Braun isn't arrested and/or expelled by the 'tolerant' Norwegians.
Norway's Left and its support for 'Palestinian' terrorism
My friends at Gates of Vienna have been running a series on Norway's political Left. The installment that was posted on Thursday deals with the Norwegian Left's support for terrorism. Most of the post deals with the Norwegian Left's support for 'Palestinian' terrorism. I strongly recommend that you read the whole thing, but just to whet your appetite....
The views that the Norwegian ambassador expresses here are, to put it mildly, shocking and extremely disturbing. By drawing distinctions between Israeli terrorist victims and Norwegian terrorist victims he is indirectly legitimising the actions of terrorist organizations such as Hamas, which purposely targets civilians. Mr Sevje should also know that there are no such things as legitimate victims of terrorism, nor can there ever be such a thing. Victims of terrorism are by definition always innocent, and attacks that specifically target them can never be justified or excused. They has to be condemned in the strongest of terms. The ultimate consequences of Mr Sevje’s words is that anyone who is opposed to the current immigration policies of the Norwegian Government is somehow more justified, by using Mr Sevje’s own strange logic, in using terror against members of the Norwegian Government and its youth wing the AUF, because these two organizations have chosen to ‘forego’ Norwegian culture, a claim which of course is completely ludicrous.
The conservative community in Norway have been vigorously harassed in the MSM since the attacks for having ‘emotionally’ contributed to the Oslo attacks, despite the fact that they have never encouraged or condoned such measures. The conservative community have in fact strongly condemned it and never attempted to make any excuses or find any mitigating circumstances that could be construed as indirect support for the terrorist. But still they have been harangued for it in the MSM. Mr. Sevje on the other hand, who in this interview makes a distinction between Israeli and Norwegian terrorist victims are given the all clear by the Norwegian MSM, and the episode is allowed to pass ‘unnoticed’ in the Norwegian press.
Another thing that is disturbing in this interview is that Mr Sevje legitimises Hamas as a worthy partner for dialogue. He’s claiming that no peace can be achieved without Hamas at the negotiation table. Mr. Sevje ought to know that it’s completely unacceptable to enter into negotiations with terrorists. I wonder if Norwegian authorities would be willing to sit down and talk to Breivik’s accomplices, if such do exist, or whether they would be willing to accept land for peace in order to dissuade terrorists from future attacks on innocent Norwegian youths. I don’t think the authorities in Norway would even contemplate such a scenario. So why is Mr Sevje suggesting that the Israelis should have to do so?
Mr. Sevje’s response to Maariv does however give us an insight into the mentality of the Norwegian left-wing community. They believe that different rules should be applied to the state of Israel. They insist that Israel must acknowledge the moral right of Palestinian terrorists to attack Israel, because the Palestinian ‘struggle’ is somehow justified. In this case they believe that the end result justifies the means, which of course it doesn’t. But in the ambassador’s defence, he’s just conveying the official government line. In January 2011 it was revealed that the Norwegian foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, had been involved in talks with the leadership of Hamas, an organization that the EU, Israel and USA have classified as a terrorist organization.
...
The Leader of the Conservative Party, Erna Solberg, recently stated that Muslims in Norway are being treated like the Jews in post war Germany. A more truthful assertion would be that it is the extreme Norwegian Left that is acting like the Germans of the 1930’s and the recipient of their rage is Israel and the Jewish people. The hatred and the vitriolic propaganda emanating from these left-wing organizations is no better than the propaganda directed towards the Jews at that particular time. The political Left in Norway, however, don’t use the same derogatory words to describe the Jews, but they use the same poisonous rhetoric, wrapped in a poorly disguised ‘displeasure’ at Israeli policies. The Left in Norway should also consider the fact that the tactic of boycotting Jewish businesses and products was embraced by the Nazis, and any talk of such boycotts leaves a bad taste in the mouth with a lot of people.
What's frankly most depressing about this post is that the Progress Party, which at one point led the polls with 31.9%, and currently has more seats in the parliament than the Labor party, has now sunk to 12%, while Norway's Labor party has over 40%. There are local elections in Norway next week; the Parliamentary elections are not scheduled to take place until 2013.
On Thursday, I blogged the latest rant by Norway's ambassador to Israel Svein Sevje. In Tuesday's JPost, Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld responded.
This expression of Israeli empathy was all the more impressive since after this tragic incident, hate-mongering directed at Israel by mainstream Norwegian society came again to the fore. Even if the Middle East was only one item on its agenda, the AUF camp at Utoya where Breivik murdered many can be characterized as an anti-Israel hate camp.
More information has since become available regarding how “successful” the demonization of Israel was at Utoya. When Breivik started firing some youngsters thought it was a demonstration of how Israeli soldiers shoot at Palestinian civilians. When I first read this story by German journalist Ulrich Sahm, it seemed unbelievable. I there upon contacted Sahm and he provided me with several sources for his story.
AUF is the youth movement of the Labor Party of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. As a young man he also attended the camp at Utoya. Many Labor party ministers come out of AUF. It is now a breeding ground for Israel-haters, some of whom will become prominent in the Labor Party.
Someone on this blog keeps asking me whether Breivik attended Utoya as well. I am trying to find out.
The causes of terrorism are multifaceted but at bottom they have a common cause: namely a belief that violence is the proper response to policies that the terrorists disagree with. The other common cause is that terrorism has often been rewarded. Norway, for example, has repeatedly rewarded Palestinian terrorism against Israel, while punishing Israel for its efforts to protect its civilians. While purporting to condemn all terrorist acts, the Norwegian government has sought to justify Palestinian terrorism as having a legitimate cause. This clearly is an invitation to continued terrorism.
It is important for the world never to reward terrorism by supporting the policies of those who employ it as an alternative to reason discourse, diplomatic resolution or political compromise.
I know of no reasonable person who has tried to justify the terrorist attacks against Norway. Yet there are many Norwegians who not only justify terrorist attacks against Israel, but praise them, support them, help finance them, and legitimate them.
The world must unite in condemning and punishing all terrorist attacks against innocent civilians, regardless of the motive or purported cause of the terrorism. Norway, as a nation, has failed to do this. It wants us all to condemn the terrorist attack on its civilians, and we should all do that, but it refuses to live by a single standard.
Nothing good ever comes from terrorism, so don't expect the Norwegians to learn any lessons from its own victimization. As the Ambassador made clear in his benighted interview, "those of us who believe [the occupation to be the cause of the terror against Israel] will not change their minds because of the attack in Oslo." In other words, they will persist in their bigoted view that Israel is the cause of the terrorism directed at it, and that if only Israel were to end the occupation (as it offered to do in 2000-2001 and again in 2007), the terrorism will end. Even Hamas, which Norway supports in many ways, has made clear that it will not end its terrorism as long as Israel continues to exist. Hamas believes that Israel's very existence is the cause of the terrorism against it. That sounds a lot like the ranting of the man who engaged in the act of terrorism against Norway.
The time is long overdue for Norwegians to do some deep soul searching about their sordid history of complicity with all forms of bigotry ranging from the anti-Semitic Nazis to the anti-Semitic Hamas. There seems to be a common thread.
I am having difficulty deciding what the story is here: Is it that Norway is continuing its self-righteous attacks on Israel in the hope of suppressing any criticism, or is it that the Jerusalem Post, Israel's only English-language (only) daily insists on continuing to publish these attacks on its pages.
In any event, Norwegian ambassador to Israel Svein Sevje, who has already argued that 'Palestinian' terrorism against Israelis is somehow different from other terrorism, and more morally justified, has once again published an attack on Israel in the pages of the JPost.
Norway condemns all acts of terrorism, and considers it essential to promote respect for international humanitarian law. Anyone with an interest in recent political positions taken by Norway can see this for themselves in the press releases and the regular foreign policy addresses by the foreign minister to the Norwegian Parliament, which are published online at www.government.no/mfa. The Norwegian government condemned the killing of four Israelis outside Hebron in August 2010, and the murder of the Fogel family this past March. It continues to demand the release of Gilad Schalit from Hamas captivity. Norway also condemned the bomb attack in Jerusalem on March 23, and has repeatedly condemned the rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas and other groups. The same goes for Hezbollah’s actions along Israel’s northern border.
If that's the case, then why did Sevje say this in his interview with Maariv that is translated in the first link above:
Svein Sevje said in an Israeli newspaper interview Tuesday that while the Norwergian bomb and gun rampages that killed 76 people and Palestinian attacks should both be considered morally unacceptable, he wanted to "outline the similarity and the difference in the two cases."
Palestinians, the ambassador told Maariv, "are doing this because of a defined goal that is related to the Israeli occupation. There are elements of revenge against Israel and hatred of Israel. To this you can add the religious element to their actions."
Sevje also conveniently ignores incidents like this 2009 incident in which a Norwegian diplomat used a discredited photo to compare Israel to Nazis and a 2010 Aftenposten report that claims that Norwegian UNIFIL troops helped two Hezbullah terrorists in Lebanon escape from Israel and the SLA. A Wikileaks cable released in 2010 claims that Norway actually sympathizes with Hamas' positions, and does not just have a tactical desire for talk with the terror organization.
Repeatedly the Norwegian foreign minister has emphasized Israel’s right to defend itself, but he has also called for proportionality in the Israeli military responses and respect for international humanitarian law. He stated that the killing of unarmed demonstrators in the Golan Heights on June 5 could not be justified, and Norway is among those who strongly criticize Israeli building of illegal settlements on occupied territory.
What did Mr. Gahr Store propose that we do with all those Syrian 'demonstrators'? Let them all infiltrate into Israel and claim a 'right of return'? Our border with Syria is not exactly Norway's border with Sweden or Denmark, and those people were far from innocent Swedes or Danes. Besides, the attempt to breach our international border is an act of war and should be responded to as an act of war.
As to the proportionality canard, consider this (original here):
This demand for "proportionality" can only be called surprising. Until this conflict began, history books everywhere always expressed great satisfaction and a certain chauvinistic pride when a nation's army inflicted on the enemy a large number of casualties, vis-à-vis a trifling price paid by "our boys." Israel is the only country expected to behave differently and, in fact, it does; I know of no other nation that announces where and when it will drop its bombs, thus enabling civilians to evacuate the territory. Of course, in this it behaves asymmetrically, because the Hamas terrorists, forever eager to cause the greatest damage possible, never announce when or where they will launch their rockets against Israel's civilian population.
In turn, Israel has not the slightest interest in causing casualties. All it wants is to stop Hamas' attacks the only way it can: by eliminating the terrorists and destroying their arsenals. There's no other way to deal with them. Hamas is not a political organization with which agreements can be reached, but a fanatical gang intent on wiping Israel off the map. To achieve this objective, its members are even willing to turn their own children into human bombs, just to kill the hated Jews.
Here's another very important asymmetry. The Jews build underground shelters in all houses near the border; they close the schools and hide the children at the least sign of danger; they treat the death of a single soldier as a national tragedy; they do everything possible to rescue their prisoners, and protect the civilian population from the consequences of war. In contrast, the authorities in Gaza, drunk with violence, fire their machine guns irresponsibly into the air to express joy or grief (causing numerous injuries), do not hesitate to install their headquarters or hide their guns in schools, mosques or hospitals, use human shields to protect themselves, turn to suicidal terrorists and reward the families of such "martyrs" with money.
Isn't it funny how Norway, which professes to support Israel, has never criticized any other country's military for lack of 'proportionality,' and has never considered or commented on the disproportion described above. Back to Sevje.
Finally, regarding Hamas: In 2007, Norway chose to engage with the Palestinian unity government, which was based on a joint platform negotiated by Fatah, Hamas and independent Palestinian representatives.
In bringing about the unity government, and in our contact with this government after its formation, there were exchanges of views at the political level with Hamas, until its violent takeover of Gaza. Contact with Hamas, however, does not mean that we finance it, or that we condone its use of terror, or that we approve of its charter or its political program. We do not.
As noted above, Norway actually sympathizes with Hamas. And there is no difference between Hamas' 'political' and 'military' 'wings.' They are one and the same. Sevje's implication that there is a difference is detached from reality.
THE NORWEGIAN government believes that terrorism must be fought with all available means – including with military power. At the same time, we must also take a political approach and search for processes that can lead groups away from terrorism and into politics.
So then why did Norway oppose Israel's war of self-defense against terrorism - Operation Cast Lead - in December 2008 and January 2009? Not only did Norway oppose that war, its government actively sought to undermine it (original here).
Israel’s dovish Kadima government only began the operation in Gaza because it had no choice. For months then prime minister Ehud Olmert sat on his hands as southern Israel was pummeled with unprovoked barrages of thousands of missiles and rockets from Gaza. Olmert was forced to take action after Hamas massively escalated its rocket and missile attacks in November and early December 2008.
While silent about Palestinian aggression, Norway’s government attacked Israel for defending itself. As Store put it, “The Israeli ground offensive in Gaza constitutes a dramatic escalation of the conflict. Norway strongly condemns any form of warfare that causes severe civilian suffering, and calls on Israel to withdraw its forces immediately.”
Two of [Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr] Store’s associates, Eric Fosse and Mads Gilbert, decamped to Gaza during Cast Lead and set up shop in Shifa Hospital. The two were fixtures in the Norwegian media, which constantly interviewed them throughout the conflict, and so spread their libelous charges against the IDF without question.
Fosse and Gilbert never mentioned that Hamas’s high command was located at the hospital in open breach of the laws of war.
When they returned home, they co-authored a book in which they accused the IDF of entering Gaza with the express goal of murdering women and children.
Store wrote a blurb of endorsement on the book’s back cover.
And finally, there's this little story (from the same source), which is totally incongruous with Norway's professed friendship toward Israel.
It is a fact that the day before Breivik’s massacre of teenagers at the Labor Party’s youth camp on Utoya Island, Store spoke to them about the need to destroy Israel’s security fence. The campers role-played pro- Hamas activists breaking international law by challenging Israel’s lawful maritime blockade of the Gaza coastline.
They held signs calling for a boycott of Israel.
Sorry, Ambassador Sevje. Talk is cheap. Your country's actions don't show friendship toward Israel. If anything, they show a visceral hatred for Israel and Jews and a level of sympathy for 'Palestinian' terrorism that is unmatched outside the Arab world.
Deputy Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide wrote last Friday in The Jerusalem Post: “We have a proven track record of committing our political, financial and military resources to peace-building activities around the world, where combating both terrorism and the causes of terrorism are important objectives.”
If George Orwell were still alive, he could have expanded his terminology to include: “Hate-mongering is peace-building” and “Promoting terror is combating terrorism.”
Attacking Israel and ignoring major Palestinian and Arab crimes comes naturally to many among the Norwegian elite. The best way to counter this is by frequently exposing examples of indirect Norwegian support for terror, hate-mongering and double standards, as well as inaction against anti-Semitism by the government.
Due to the recent massacre, a number of foreign journalists have also familiarized themselves with the perversities that permeate Norway’s elite culture. Israeli reactions fighting back are likely now to get more media attention than in the past.
The Israeli Embassy in Oslo has presented a long list of biases on the part of Norwegian State Broadcasting System NRK to its supervisory council, which has waved it away.
People working for such an anti-Israel propagandist body should not be given recognition by Israel’s Government Press Office. NGOs that receive money from the Norwegian government should be scrutinized. How much Norwegian money is used by Palestinians for terror should be investigated. Doing all this is virtually risk-free. The Norwegian government could hardly cause more damage to Israel than it already has, without information about its perverse actions being widely spread.
The Norwegian elite’s culture will not undergo structural change due to the massacre in Utoya. For Israel to modify Norwegian perceptions of it would require suicidal risk-taking. Any successful policy must, therefore, be based on a radically different approach: the continued public exposure of Norwegian hate-mongering, so that its government’s international image becomes as tarnished as its reality.
I will happily expose Norwegian hate-mongering at every opportunity. So should you.
Norway has banned Kosher animal slaughter since before the Nazis
The Norwegian government may be sorry today that they messed with Caroline Glick. And although she explicitly did not ask for one, they might consider an apology. Glick gives us a contemporary history lesson about Norwegian anti-Semitism.
In a 2006 report on Jew hatred in contemporary Norwegian caricatures published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Erez Uriely noted among other things that Norway banned kosher ritual slaughter in 1929 – three years before a similar ban was instituted in Nazi Germany.
And whereas the ban on kosher ritual slaughter was lifted in post-war Germany, it was never abrogated in Norway.
As Uriely noted, Norway’s prohibition on Jewish ritual slaughter makes Judaism the only religion that cannot be freely practiced in Norway.
Fascism was deeply popular in Norway in the 1930s.
In the wake of the Nazi invasion, Norwegian governmental leaders founded and joined the Norwegian Nazi Party. Apparently, sympathy for Nazi collaborators is strong today in Norway.
As the JCPA’s Manfred Gerstenfeld noted in a report on the rise in Norwegian anti-Semitic attacks during 2009, two years ago the Norwegian government allocated more than $20 million in public funds to commemorate Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun [pictured. CiJ] on the occasion of the Nobel laureate for literature’s 150th birthday. As The New York Times reported, in February 2009, Norway’s Queen Sonja opened the, “year-long, publicly financed commemoration of Hamsun’s 150th birthday called ‘Hamsun 2009.’” But while Hamsun may have been a good writer, he is better remembered for being an enthusiastic Nazi. Hamsun gave his Nobel prize to Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels. During a wartime visit to Germany, Hamsun flew to meet Adolf Hitler at Hitler’s mountain home in Bavaria.
And in 2009, Norway built a $20 million museum to honor his achievements.
...
Israel’s dovish Kadima government only began the operation in Gaza because it had no choice. For months then prime minister Ehud Olmert sat on his hands as southern Israel was pummeled with unprovoked barrages of thousands of missiles and rockets from Gaza. Olmert was forced to take action after Hamas massively escalated its rocket and missile attacks in November and early December 2008.
While silent about Palestinian aggression, Norway’s government attacked Israel for defending itself. As Store put it, “The Israeli ground offensive in Gaza constitutes a dramatic escalation of the conflict. Norway strongly condemns any form of warfare that causes severe civilian suffering, and calls on Israel to withdraw its forces immediately.”
Two of Store’s associates, Eric Fosse and Mads Gilbert, decamped to Gaza during Cast Lead and set up shop in Shifa Hospital. The two were fixtures in the Norwegian media, which constantly interviewed them throughout the conflict, and so spread their libelous charges against the IDF without question.
Fosse and Gilbert never mentioned that Hamas’s high command was located at the hospital in open breach of the laws of war.
When they returned home, they co-authored a book in which they accused the IDF of entering Gaza with the express goal of murdering women and children.
Store wrote a blurb of endorsement on the book’s back cover.
...
It is a fact that the day before Breivik’s massacre of teenagers at the Labor Party’s youth camp on Utoya Island, Store spoke to them about the need to destroy Israel’s security fence. The campers role-played pro- Hamas activists breaking international law by challenging Israel’s lawful maritime blockade of the Gaza coastline.
Norwegians believe that terrorism is sometimes okay, especially when its targets are Israelis and it is perpetrated by 'Palestinians.' Anders Behring Breivik got that message. But he also decided that terrorism was okay at a time when it was wrong, even according to Norwegians. Instead of soul-searching, Norwegians are accusing. That is wrong.
UPDATE WEDNESDAY 12:09 AM
I just received the email below from reader Eliana:
Carl, the photo you're showing of Knut Hamsun is Max von Sydow who stared in a movie about the man.
The movie's name was "Hamsun" and it was produced in 1996.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
