Happy news from VG today: The vice president of the Parliament Akhtar Chaudrhy wont go to Gaza after all: FM Jonas Gahr Støre has previously warned against participating in the convoy. He thinks that the red-green politicians who participate int he convoy risk being used by other groups with ulterior motifs. State Secretary Espen...
Norway, Israel and the Jews
- NUPI researcher thinks condemnation of Syria’s Assad is selective and opportunisticNAÏVE PRAYERS OVER SYRIA Aftenposten 2012 02 21 p 6, Helge Lurås Summary. Helge Lurås of NUPI expresses deep skepticism over the Syrian opposition, admitting the Assad regime is not exactly being a model of democracy of human rights and democracy, however it is having the support of perhaps 50 per cent of the country’s population, not least he minorities. Q […]
- Gutting Israel over its embassyNorwegian media continue to make a feast out of Israel’s difficulties in finding a suitable venue for its embassy, which both takes security concerns and costs into consideration. Maybe we shall remind the ironic commentators that there is a very good reason why Israel is particularly sensitive with regards to security; its embassy was blown to bits in Bueno […]
- ooopsy,that’s the Nobel price taken off our hands then…Some of you may remember an entry from December last year, at a time when Norway had suffered several set-backs reputation wise. A substantial part of that entry was dedicated to an oped by the great grandson of Alfred Nobel, who charged that the Norwegian Nobel committee does not fulfill its obligations under the Alfred Nobel Testament: He says that the Nor […]
- The Embarrassing Embassy story…As Kafka says, Norway isn’t very keen on being a good host – but then I suppose Norway is very happy with the arrangement for our own embassy in Tel Aviv, situated on top of a fancy shopping center in very upmarket part of town, where security is taken well care of by shopping center and local police. Maybe the Israelis are just that much better in providing […]
- Norwegian hospitality to Israel: Suffer bitch!Almost as certain as death and taxes, NRK will not let any opportunity pass by to portray Jews as victims or Israelis as whiners. NRK Østlandssendingen headlines a piece with “The Israeli embassy feels discriminated,” and goes on to cover the Israeli embassy’s alleged whining over not being able to find a suitable location for its embassy. NRK makes its best […]
- Aftenposten allows anti-Semitic commentsAftenposten today published an oped by Martin Bodd, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, responding to a proposal by Aftenposten’s editor for culture and debate Knut Olav Åmås to name a square after one of the Jewish children we sent off to an early and cruel death in Auschwitz in 1942. The talkbacks to this oped are horrific, demonstrating once more that it […]
- The product of a rotting mindDagsavisens forum for polite debate can from time to time look surprisingly like the inside of the head of a person with very unstable hormones, or perhaps neurons like over-ripe camembert cheese. Or, like a grotty catacomb where no air has circulated for centuries. It is probably a style thing; to be oddly out of touch – passé, where they want to be progres […]
- Frightened Norwegian shooters stay at homeI wonder if the powers that be in Norway have put similar travel warnings in place for anybody going to Sweden, specifically to Malmø? Norway Says Israel Dangerous, Won’t Allow Shooting Team to Visit Norway’s security authorities rule that Israel is dangerous, the country’s national shooting team cancels its trip to Israel next month. Elad Benari Norway’s se […]
- Al-Dura lies finally exposedLifted from Jerusalem Post French court acquits Israeli in al-Dura libel case Dr. Yehuda David had been convicted for refuting claimsthat a former patient of his was injured by IDF gunfire in iconic second Intifada incident. A French appeals court on Wednesday acquitted Israeli Dr. Yehuda David of libeling the father of Muhammad al- Dura, a symbol of the sec […]
- Fjordman hits backTERRORISM AND GENUFLEXION Verdens Gang 2012 02 17 p 27, Peder Nøstvold Jensen, a.k.a “Fjordman”. Not Online Author Øyvind Strømmen has been referred to by the media as an expert post 22/7; though it is rather vague what he is supposed to be an expert in. Strømmen took part in the Labor party’s seminar on extremism in January of 2012 in the company of Harald […]
Archive for May, 2011
Sidsel Wold lets it rip
Sidsel Wold is triumphant these days. After her jury nullification acquittal by the Broadcasting Council and a flurry of awards and nominations, she obviously feels she can let loose on the home stretch. Her latest rant is an attempt at a survey of the political situation in Israel but is really just a poorly...
Støre replies to question on the situation in the Middle East
The opposition keeps demanding straight answers from FM Støre on the situation in the Middle East. Støre has now replied to a question posed by parliamentarian Hans Olav Syversen (Christian Peoples’ Party). Notice that Støre, while not willing to call Hamas a terrorist organization, does acknowledge that Hamas has carried out terrorist acts and...
Swedish fiction writer Mankell talks gibberish at Hay-on-Wye festival, then must face realities of rejection
The season of festivals is upon us and in the UK that means a lot of fun and provocations. This weekend, festival goers to Hay-on-Wye literature festival got a bit of everything, starting with a scientist who presented credible studies to sound alarm bells that many Muslim communities, especially from South East Asia, allow...
Normakor weekly summary Week of May 22nd
The weekly summaries are supplied by Normakor. Norwegian media memes on Israel, Jews, and the Middle East Week of May 22, 2011 Aftenposten’s article titled “Rich Jews Threaten Obama” (reported here last week) created a bit of a stir-up, prompting Barry White, the US ambassador to Norway, to submit a letter of protest to...
NTB’s “free” and “open” border crossing
You don’t have to read Norwegian newspapers for a long time to realize that NTB functions a bit like the political commisariate for the press here. Their releases read like political talking points for the editors who reprint things. NTB in turn tends to cut, paste, translate, redact, and edit from AFP and occasionally...
Human Rights Organizations ask Crown Prince to not go to Azerbaijan
Several human rights organizations has asked the Crown Prince of Norway, Haakon, to not go on an official visit to Azerbaijan, according to Vårt Land. His Royal Highness is going to represent Norwegian business interests at the opening of the Baku Oil and Gas expo in June. The human rights organizations have warned that...
Métro d’Oslo: tagger ‘Free Palestine’ pour réhabiliter de jeunes délinquants
When Aftenposten published the “Rich Jews threaten Obama” headline, they did not understand how that was wrong until first their readers and then the world reacted. Aftenposten’s completely uncritical coverage of how an art project allowed youngsters to spray-paint “Free Palestine” on subway walls has not received the same amount of attention. But now...
Flotsam and jetsam, Friday 27th of May
We Norwegians are obsessed with Israel. Always something, and so rarely anything good. NRK offers a lengthy article by journalist Dan Robert Larsen, on the situation of the bedouin on the West Bank. This is run of the mill bad-news which we have been drip-fed with for decades. Excerpt: In his speech al Korshan...
Nobody likes a know-it-all, Jonas
Foreign minister Støre wrote an article for Dagsavisen that was also published on the government website. Here follows an unauthorized translation: Dialogue: upheavals in the Arab world could also provide a framework for a new spring between Palestinians and Israelis. Our message is clear: go to the negotiating table! We are witnessing a popular...
Duck gets police escort
Life in Norway is not all sunshine and roses. Sometimes tough decisions need to be made. As luck has it, the Norwegian media corps usually manages to stay on top of the situation. Verdens Gang journalist Anders Park Framstad reports: Duck gets police escort to cross the road. Summary: The Israeli Embassy’s neighbor, the Norwegian...
US ambassador reacts to Aftenposten’s ‘Rich Jews’ story
When times in Norway were hard, the USA took in our emigrants. When Norway was occupied during WWII, the USA stepped in to stop the nazi aggression. All through the cold war, the USA kept the wolf from our door. Now the US ambassador to Norway writes in to Aftenposten, pointing out that perhaps...
Ex-newspaper editor thinks it is hard to relate to bombing targets in public
Following story that the MoD and the defense establishment are not too keen to let the public know what our boys actually do in our name in Libya, VG now reports that army chief Harald Sunde says that the army take these allegations seriously and it does not want to be seen as withholding...
IDF king of transparency, Norwegian authorities block insight into Armed Forces actions in Libya
Who would have thought it? Norway, or to be precise, the current political leadership, who is always harping on about Israel and her obligation to be transparent in all she does, is more than reluctant to let us Norwegians in on exactly what our armed forces are doing in Libya. Aftenposten runs a concerned...
Impartial Norway: Change law so that tax deductions not possible for donations for West Bank only
The ministry of finance in cooperation with the ministry of foreign affairs are tabling a proposal to ban tax deductions for donations to West Bank construction. Our always ethically minded FM Støre, you know the one who thinks its OK to be friendly with Hamas, is quoted in Vårt Land : The financing of...
‘So verbreitet ist die Angst’: Jüdische Allgemeine on anti-Semitism in Norway
To what extent is anti-Semitism a problem here in Norway? Jüdische Allgemeine tries to make sense of things. Excerpt from article titled “So verbreitet ist die Angst“: Sie haben ihm einen gelben Stern auf den Rücken geklebt und ihn als ›Judenschwein‹ beschimpft«, vor laufender Kamera beschreibt eine jüdische Mutter, wie ihr Sohn in der...
Donations to Palestine good, donations to Israel bad
It is no news that Norway is one of the Palestinian people’s main financiers, but here is a recent example of how things work up here. The municipality of Rana has decided to throw some spare cash to the Palestinians. Journalis Beate Nygård in Rana Blad, a local newspaper, reports: DISAGREEMENT OVER FISCAL SUPPORT...
National Review on ‘Rich Jews’ story
Jay Nordlinger at the National Review is one of the few foreigners who pays any attention to Norway. Let us hope that he continues to do so. This time Nordlinger has picked up on Aftenposten’s “Rich Jews threaten Obama” story. Read the National Review story. Excerpt: This morning, I learned something from Tom Gross, that...
Aftenposten emulates (Iranian) PressTV
Norwegian punditry has had some serious indigestion lately. As much as they revere Barack Obama and despise Netanyahu, it takes a lot of work to parse the language of each to make sure that they appear to be of entirely separate minds. So it’s interesting to compare the following three interpretations of Netanyahu’s speech...
Gaza-Chaudry calls Progress Party racist – calls Muslims “Jews”
As our unelected Parliamentary Vice president Akhtar Chaudry (Socialist Left) prepares his bags to travel to the opening of the new swish shopping mall in Gaza (there cannot possibly be any other reason to go, the Red Cross has cancelled the so-called humanitarian crisis), he does take some time out to talk nonsense in public....