Honestly, what have I been saying for years now? Israel has been thorougly South Africanized, especially in Europe. Scandinavia in particular has gone over the cliff as far as Israel is concerned. I do not recall whether it was Sweden or Norway which wanted to mark Israeli goods with a special marking (editor's note: How about a yellow star? That worked well for the Germans in the 1930s and 1940s.), so that those dhimmis could avoid "buying Israeli" if they wanted to, but that loathesome movement emanated out of Scandinavia. As well, let's not forget that it was Scandinavians which wanted to revoke Shimon Peres' 1994 Nobel Peace Prize...........but not that of the godfather of modern day terrorism, Yasser Arafat.

I've really had it with that region of the world. I am personally going to boycott each and everything that comes out of Norway, Sweden and Finland. I don't ask that anyone else do likewise, but at least I'll feel better about myself knowing that I'm not supporting the economies of those smacked assses. Denmark gets a little slack because of the Mohammed Cartoon controversy.

Great, now I'm all ticked off.........

Great now I gotta start adding Norwegian opinion editors to the bad side? WTF? After Denmark's cartoon thing I woulda thought they'd be a little more anti-Islamofacist up there but I guess not. Someone please cut the supply of blonde pills to the damn scandinavians.

"The fact that Aftenposten even printed it speaks volumes about the toxic atmosphere in Norway."

No doubt. Yet there have been a continuing stream of tell-tale indicators for a long time now. Lieberman's situation in Connecticut, vis-a-vis the Democratic party, and therefore the country in general, is another contemporary example, as Bill Bennett emphasized this morning. But heck, bare minimum, we could revisit history, going back to April, 1975 for example. Memory hold politics.

April, 1975 ? Michael, refresh my memory.

April 17, '75 and April 30, '75.

A very big subject, vis-a-vis the Left which is heavily configured into today's dynamics. I was being a bit rueful, though too as historical lineage they are particularly representational and telling moments.

Jostein Gaarder is a little idiot. And, for all his weaving, there's absolutely no doubt that he's either dumb as shit or anti-semitic as hell. Any old fool with two cents of worth knowledge of Judaism could see, that his rant against "The chosen people" as "racist", "laughable" and "a crime against humanity" is nothing short of hatred of Jews.

(btw. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jostein_Gaarder)

Anyway, before we all get carried away, here's a survey from another Scandinavian country:

Gallup: Massive Danish support for Israel

August 5, 2006.

A new Gallop survey shows that a majority of Danes support Israel in the now four week long war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

57 percents, are of the opinion that it is Hezbollah which are responsibly for the conflict, while 37 percent points to Israel.

At the same time, just about every other Dane, 48 percent, say that they have most sympathy for Israel, while the Shia-Moslem group only find support by 7%, which are mainly found on the left-wing.

The governments policy in the conflict has likewise the support of a majority of the population, even though the opposition has criticised the government for following the lead of the USA.

Link: http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Indland/2006/08/05/202208.htm?rss=true

isirota1965 writes:

"I've really had it with that region of the world. I am personally going to boycott each and everything that comes out of Norway, Sweden and Finland. I don't ask that anyone else do likewise, but at least I'll feel better about myself knowing that I'm not supporting the economies of those smacked assses."

Good plan! I hope the Isreali governement will follow your example. Norway is one of the World's biggest exporters of arms and ammunition, and ammunition from Dyno-Nobel is used against Libanese civilians.

By the way, I'm more than a little puzzled about the logic that every time anybody question Israeli politics, they are labelled as anti Semites, racists or Hezbollah sympathizers. Most of the people who speak up about the situation are neither. Surely you know that?

I know nothing of the kind.

If someone ia astive questioning the abuse of guest wrokers in the gulf States, Saudi Arabia's funding of the jihad to murder or ethnically cleanse allnon-arabs in Darfur, Syria's abuse of its Kurds, Egypt's abuse of its Christians, and has wants to criticize Israel for, say, allowing a gay rights parade - OK. No anti-Semitism there.

What I do reserve is the right to question the motives of people who criticize Israel harshly and disporportionately, while ignoring the real and egrigious abuse of human rights througout the region and the world.

It is almost amusing to see how both sides, represented by Gaarder and Isirota1965, promote the same means to meet their end: a boycott of an entire people. I'm soo glad people tend not to generalize..Oh, and by the way, who in the Western world does NOT manufacture arms and ammunition? We better boycott each and everyone of those countries and all their products, wholly unrelated to the arms business.

Liz: It would be interesting to learn what underlying motives North Europeans could have besides trying to stop the massive bombing and loss of civilian lives. Can you see the contours of some sort of conspiracy behind the humanism?

There are people suffering on both sides of the border, but we have difficulties understanding that Israel’s right to defend itself can justify a full scale invasion of Lebanon. Our response is more that of sadness and disbelief than hostility towards Israel and its population.

It is true that there is a deep sympathy for the Lebanese population as well as a growing sympathy for the Palestinians – but not for militant Islamist groups – in Scandinavia. Still we are painfully aware of the disregard for human rights and freedom of speech in Muslim countries (too) as well as in other parts of the world. We have strong opinions about that too.

Morten: Anti Semitism is now common in Europe, and I can prove it. Have you read this study:

www.solomonia.com/blog/archives/2006_07.shtml

There are many reasons for this. A largely left-wing media and political culture that rejects national rights in favor of international socialist values. A belief that nothing is worth fighting for that makes Europeans fail to understand that other peoples (the Jews, for example) feel that their cultureal heritage is worth defending. A Nevil Chamberlain/Quisling-like belief that appeasement can make the crocodile decide not to swallow you.

But, at bottom, I fear that a lot of Europeans have dropped almost everyting about their Christian heritage, except the ancient hatred of the Jew, the historic European other. the irony is that the few Europeans who still attend church tend to support Israel, probably because they understand that some values are worht defending, even dying for.

Oh, and Denmark supports Israel. They, unlike other Europeans, have looked on the face of Islam and know what Israel is fighting against.

"... I'm more than a little puzzled about the logic that every time anybody question Israeli politics, they are labelled as anti Semites, racists or Hezbollah sympathizers." Morten

Firstly a point of argumentation:

When presuming to counter broadly based generalizations, you might counter with something other than a broadly based generalization. E.g., supply a specific example, perhaps a specific quote from someone, then counter that specific instance, that specific example. (If you're going to chastise people for using a too generalized argument, then don't use a too generalized counter-argument in return.)

And secondly, as pertains to the subject matter more directly:

Or, Morten, are you generally denying that there can in fact be both avowed and overt forms of support for Syria/Hezbollah/Iran, as well as de facto but less overt forms, even, perhaps, unintended forms, of support for Syria/Hezbollah/Iran and Co.?