Roger Hercz is to Dagsavisen what Tzipi Livni said she refused to be to Netanyahu – a fig leaf of decency. As the first journalist in Norway he finds the Senator’s letter to be newsworthy enough to mention it in today’s newspaper, a full week after this site published it for the first time.
In the article “Positive after Israelsk initiative/statement” (not on the web yet), Mr.Hercz writes:
American protest
But three years after Norway became the first and only western government to acknowledge the Hamas-led Palestinian coalition government, the situation is that the Foreign Ministry must “convince” that all is well in relations with Israel. In earlier days such a conflict would regardlessly have been limited to the bilateral relationship between Norway and Israel. But now it threatens to create waves, all the way to the USA. A strongly conservative republican senator, Sam Brownback, who is considered a “friend” of Norway, recently wrote a letter to Norway’s ambassador in Washington where he protested not only against Norwegian policies vis-a-vis Israel, but also against what he described as an “alarming” increase in anti-Semitism.
Støre rejects the accusations. – I categorically reject the allegations of Norway being anti-Semitic. That there may exist anti-Semitism in certain circles, is possible, but I reject the accusations of Norway being anti-Semitic.
With regards to Støre’s statement, please notice the following: 1) He does not reject that Norway is anti-Israel 2) He does reject that Norway is anti-Semitic, but then again nobody is claiming that Norway is uniformly anti-Semitic. What is being pointed out, from Oslo to Tel Aviv to Washington DC, is that anti-Semitism is a real and considerable problem and that it appears to be linked to an otherwise inexplicable anti-Israelism 3) He only finds it “possible” that anti-Semitism might exist in “certain circles”. There is no need for such modesty. As this site has identified on a multitude of occasions, anti-Semitism in alive and kicking in this country. See a sample of incidents here.
