• Document 15 calls on Jonas Gahr Støre to explain Senator Brownback’s letter
    "Mowgli made leader of the Bandar-log" by John Charles Dollman On August 3rd  US Senator Brownback wrote a letter, expressing concern over Israel-hatred and anti-Semitism, to Norway’s ambassador to Washington DC. While this site published the letter on August 12th, Norwegian journalists failed to find it newsworthy. Members of the opposition […]
  • NRK mentions Naqba-effect but omits war-cause
    NRK reports on the Naqba without mentioning war which caused it Journalist Laila Ø. Bakken of the Norwegian State Broadcasting Authority NRK manages to report on how Abbas’ family fled during the “Naqba”, while completely omitting any mention of the 1948 war which caused the “Naqba”. Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and […]
  • Letter from Minister of Defense denies boycott of Israel, claims ‘constructive dialogue’ with Israel
    Hans Olav Syversen from the Christian Democrats refers to a letter from the Minister of Defense Vårt Land today reports that the Christian Democrats (KrF) and Conservatives (Høyre) aim to stop Minister of Defense Grete Faremo (Labor) from boycotting Israeli companies on an individual basis. The article (above) refers to a letter from […]
  • NUPI invites Freeman to speak about US-Israel relations
    When Charles W. Freeman had to resign from a position with the Obama administration in March 2009, he blamed the Israel-Lobby. On Wednesday he visited NUPI in order to speak about US-Israel relations. Vårt Land reports, in an NTB article, that Freeman has as little faith in the current round of peace […]
  • Scandinavian democracy – a guided affair
    Screenshots from Norwegian newspapers Aftenposten and DagenMagazinet Not even in Scandinavia does democracy work flawlessly. Is there an invisible hand at work? In the screenshot above (left) we see an op-ed from yesterday’s Aftenposten, with Eirik Vatnøy from Civita, a liberal think tank, asking some rather poignant questions. Vatnøy points out that it appe […]
  • Washington Post on terrorism in Norway
    Three men were apprehended this summer on suspicion of terrorism. As the Washington Post points out, we Norwegians were told that we at no time have been in any danger whatsoever. Norway ‘bomb plot’ underscores al-Qaida pitfalls In late 2009, Jakobsen went to Norway’s Police Security Service and began providing information on Davud’s activities after what he […]
  • Protected: Norway suspects Israel unethical, invests in Turkmenistan
    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. […]
  • JP mentions Norway: Has Europe learned from its past?
    In material terms, being Norwegian is like winning the lottery. Intellectually it is like living in a carnival. Once groupthink sets in there is nobody left to comment upon how it affects us, and prominent citizens can act bizarrely with impunity . The JP, which editor of Aftenposten Harald Stanghelle tells us is […]
  • Interview with a convert reveals anti-Semitism
    In Aslak Nore book “Ekstremistan” the author predicts that in the near future, Norway will be more mulit-cultural, for good and for worse. The reader is treated to some of the latter in Nore’s interview with a Norwegian convert to Islam, who reflects upon some of her formerly held beliefs. The following […]
  • Nous allons manger des pommes de terre israéliennes », annonce notre hôte
    This blog is not about Israel or the Norwegian Jews. It is about Norway’s perception of and relationship to Israel and Jews. Yet Norway is only one little piece in a larger puzzle. It is while trying to solve this puzzle that foreigners every now and then are brought to pay attention to us up […]

NTNU academic questions virtue of boycott

Far from all NTNU academics are convinced of the necessity of imposing an academic boycott on Israel. Here is the stance of NTNU academic Bjørn K.Alsberg.

Unauthorized translation:

A boycott of Israel? (14.9.09, 13:37)

An academic boycot of Israel? In May 2009 some employees at NTNU and HIST wrote an open letter to their respective boards where they [...]

Criticism against imbalanced NTNU seminars

Is it correct for a university to host a series of seminars on a conflict, with only one side of the story being told? Say that an American university was to host seminars on Norway’s war in Afghanistan – ought the seminars only to focus on the sufferings of the Afghan population, or ought the [...]

Spanish reader on Danish special forces

For a long time Scandinavia was a faraway nowhere-land of plenty. Nothing much happened up here, except maybe Volvo would produce a new model or there would be a delightful abundance of snow for christmas. Then the milk and honey went to our leaders’ heads. They decided to export Scandinavian virtues to the rest of [...]

Mearsheimer endorsed by Bin-laden, speaks at NUPI

Professor John J. Mearsheimer co-authored “The Israel Lobby” with Stephen Walt. Little could they have known that after writing this book they would first be endorsed by Osama Bin-Laden, and then afterwards invited to speak at prestigious institutions in faraway Norway.

While Mr. Walt will be lecturing at NTNU’s autumn seminar-series on Israel, Mr. Mearsheimer is [...]

On Norwegian journalism

Back in March, the Jerusalem Post published an erroneous article on anti-Semitism in Norway. Now we Norwegians, as opposed to Israelis, are not used to having erroneous articles printed about us in foreign newspapers. So naturally there was a legitimate outcry and the JP retracted their article. Some Norwegians had the decency to point out [...]

Israeli director-general: Norwegians are “tough vikings”

The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has accused Norway of upholding anti-Israel and anti-Semitic policies. Lieberman is to have mentioned especially Norway’s “quiet support” of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and commemoration of Nazi-affiliated author Knut Hamsun. Lieberman is vaguely right, but for the wrong reasons.

Jonas Gahr Støre would listen to the Devil himself, [...]

Sri Lanka accuses Solheim of gun-running

Allegations against other countries should not be made with ease. Yet for Norway, so quick to condemn Israel, it is difficult to cry “foul” over allegations made against Norway by Sri Lanka.

Unauthorized translation from Verdens Gang, Norway’s largest daily:

A Sri Lankan newspaper writes that Norway is to have contributed to meetings between the guerilla organization [...]

UK school fearful of teaching about Holocaust

A UK school appears to have avoided selecting the Holocaust as a coursework topic out of “…fear of confronting anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial” among its students. From what we understand this is one school in the UK – one single incident. No, it’s not all UK schools. Just the one, but an example worth studying.

How [...]

American University Lecturer asks Digernes to apologize

Norwegian universities are in general eager for international recognition. Yet the particular kind of foreign attention rektor Torbjørn Digernes is attracting to NTNU is hardly of the desired kind. The latest comment on Rektors side (Rektor’s page) is made by Tammi Benjamin, an American university lecturer:

In no other country in the civilized world has a [...]

Media reports on criticism of imbalanced NTNU seminars

This autumn NTNU, a prestigious Norwegian university, is offering a series of seminars on Israel. The seminars have attracted widespread criticism for being imbalanced, and it has been claimed that the sole purpose of the seminars is to set the stage for a push for academic boycott in 2010.

Two of the mainstream channels to have [...]

Is Norway becoming Extreme-istan?

Aslak Nore is a young Nowegian journalist who just will not stop rocking the boat. He now appears to have picked up a cue from Melanie Phillips’ (author of Londonistan) and is now publishing a book in which he claims that Norway will become more extreme – we will both get more true excellence and [...]

Al Aqsa TV tells kids “Slaughter the jews”

Norway supports the Palestinian people (pr.capita) more than any other people on earth. Yet this support appears to be completely unrelated to the actual behavior of the regimes of Hamas and Fatah. Blatant racism and incitement to murder goes virtually unnoticed by the red-green coalition government, although it has been questioned by the opposition (Progress [...]

Norwegian development aid and Al-Aqsa TV

Norway supports the Palestinian people (pr.capita) more than any other people on earth. For left-of-centre Norwegians with political aspirations, a tour in the Palestinian territories is almost compulsory. As for the programs on Al-Aqsa TV, the protests of the Progress and Christian Democratic parties have fallen on deaf ears – Norwegian support continues unabated.

The program [...]

The New Republic on Sweden’s Free Speech Charade

Look through copies of Swedish Aftonbladet from the 1960′s and you will find articles lauding Pol Pot, who killed of one fourth of his own population. USA, it was believed, was ultimately to blame. Here is a excerpt from Benjamin Birbaum’s reflection on free speech in Sweden, in The New Republic:

Criticism of Norway is welcome gift to Kristin Halvorsen

Norway is in many ways such a splendid little country, it’s dazzling. Yet same as with any other nation, have a closer look and you will unavoidably find rats in the basement, cockroaches in the drains, skeletons in the closet and forgotten evils in dark nooks and crannies throughout the realm.

The manner in which Norway [...]