Posted on 03/23/2007 5:55:51 AM PDT by SJackson
Why was Raymond Johansen, the Norwegian deputy foreign minister, in such a hurry to be the first European representative to meet Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the new Palestinian unity government in Gaza?
What was the hurry? He certainly read Haniyeh's March 17 speech in which the Hamas chief outlined the Fatah/Hamas government program. Haniyeh said: "The government affirms that resistance is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people." And he knows what Haniyeh means by "resistance" - suicide bombings of cafes and buses, drive-by shootings, rocket launchings.
He knows the new government demands the "right of return" to pre-1967 Israel for millions of Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendents. He knows that means that killing Israel demographically.
Johansen knows that the Fatah/Hamas government does not renounce violence; that it will not honor previous agreements signed by the PLO, and that it will never recognize the right of a sovereign Jewish state to exist anywhere in the Middle East.
So, I asked myself, again, just what was Johansen's rush? Now, I recall that Johansen was quoted back in March 2001 (by the Norwegian news agency NTB) as saying that international law gave the Palestinians the right to fight an "occupier," but he later said that he'd been misquoted.
So the more I thought about Johansen's rush to embrace Hamas, the more baffled I was.
I admit that I know very little about Norway. All I remember is that this faraway country enjoys beautiful fjords and other wonders of nature. As a matter of fact, I have never met a single Norwegian.
So I consulted my old files in our archives to see whether they would help me fathom Norway's rush to Gaza.
Here's what I came upon.
It was Norway that, during World War II, produced the original Quisling - Vidkun Quisling.
When Germany invaded Norway on April 9, 1940, Quisling announced a pro-Nazi coup. He thus betrayed his king and his country to collaborate with the invading German forces.
The very name "Quisling" still stands for a betrayal. And then I recalled that after World War II was over, the Norwegian government announced that it would agree to re-absorb, within its great land, precisely the same number of Jews as had been living in Norway before 1939 and had been murdered in the Holocaust.
But not a single Jew more.
THIS WAS at a time when tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors were in refugee camps in Germany desperate to get out of Germany and re-build their lives. The Norwegian government decision was certainly a logical one. No one, save for the Palestinian Jewish community, had any interest in all those "undesirable" survivors.
But I imagine that there was some satisfaction in Norway, when those survivors finally found sanctuary - in what would become the Jewish state.
Do today's Norwegians recall that once this refugee problem had been solved, Israel had to conquer the desert, absorb a million more Jews exiled by the Arab countries and fight war after war for its survival?
And perhaps in order to bring some order and peace to the Middle East, in 1993, it was the Norwegian government that helped foist the Oslo agreement on us.
Now, after over 2,000 Israelis perished or were maimed by the Palestinian terror which came in the wake of Oslo, the very name "Oslo" has became anathema to most Israelis.
And how do Oslo's own citizens react to the violence unleased by the accords named after their capital?
They probably say that we Israelis anyway agreed to it - forgetting the manipulations and dirty tricks that made our Knesset's acquiescence possible.
Besides, Norwegians probably tell themselves, they were not the only European country to push the agreement down our throats.
And so, thanks to Oslo, we turned over most of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. We brought Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas and the entire enemy command and control from exile in Tunis and set them up in Ramallah.
More recently, we even pulled out entirely the small Jewish communities from Gaza.
Still, our Arab enemies lost no opportunity to work hard, not for for the sake of two independent states, Israel and Palestine, as envisaged in the agreements signed so far, but for a single country, where only those Jews who lived in Palestine before 1918 would be eligible for citizenship.
The whole problem can today be summarized in a few words: There will be no peace as long as the Arabs believe that Israel can be destroyed - and sitting with Hamas reinforces this belief.
As long as Europe allows the Arabs to fantasize about "the right of return" there can be no end to this conflict.
But this message has failed to reach the consciences of the Norwegian government.
So let me appeal to the people of Norway: Tell your government that Israel has a right to live in peace and security. And that to do so, the Palestinian government must recognize the agreements signed between Israel and the PLO; must renounce the threat and use of terrorism against Israelis; and must recognize the right of the Jewish people to live as a sovereign nation in the Middle East.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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I don't think this is a minor issue at all.
This is hugely important.
Norway's act represents a breach in a line that civilization must hold -- avoiding recognizing and supporting terrorist entities like Hamas and Hezbollah.
If the civilized world had their head on straight they would be forcefully shaming and ostracizing Norway for this act.
I agree.
Norway is amazingly undermining the policy of the U.S., the EU and the rest of the Quartet.
It is an outrage.
Cheers.
This article falls apart entirely in the last paragraph. After delineating Norwegian perfidy toward the Jews, the author appeals to the conscience of the Norwegian people. Is it impossible that Norwegians either care nothing about the Jews or worse, wish them ill? Why not conclude the article simply by telling the Norwegians to go jump in a fjord?
We'll have to wait until June.
Despite the Goreacles Global Warming, its entirely too cold at the moment :-)
But, seriously as much as I despise the current socialist government (And I have to emphasise that is does not speak for the entire Norwegian people. It did not even receive 50 percent of the votes.), I have to defend them in in one respect. They do, publicly at least to agree with all the points made by the author at the end.
They just argue that "dialogue" with even Hamas is the best way to get there.
Cheers.
But not a single Jew more.
THIS WAS at a time when tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors were in refugee camps in Germany desperate to get out of Germany and re-build their lives. The Norwegian government decision was certainly a logical one. No one, save for the Palestinian Jewish community, had any interest in all those "undesirable" survivors.
But the doors have been opened to Muslim immigrants, who have proven to be a source of rape, indigence, and hostility to Nordic culture.
"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Genesis 12:3
You know. It's weird. I have never heard of that fact. I do not doubt it though. It is just interesting that such a fact would have been supressed here. We could have done with more jews (and less muslims).
The first jewish person I met was ironically a Norwegian-jew from Minnesota while at college in the states. I guess his forefathers did a wise choice in emmigrating to the USA.
Another interesting, and sad, tidbit is that the in the first Norwegian constitution that we celebrate, it was unlawful for jews (and jesuits) to enter the kingdom of Norway...
The narrative of the USA is a constant self reflection and self criticsm, leading to the reforms, conflicts and "movements" comprising our history.
It has also led to the excess of PC.
The correlation to this is that THIS type of culture is worth preserving.
I think Norwegians will succeed in what needs to be done.
BTW, have you read Fjordman ?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1805685/posts?page=1
A CLEAR line connects the Cambridge students, the Americans in Iraq, and the situation in Israel. The leftist-Islamist front is eroding the free world's sense of justice. Rather than assert our liberal, democratic values and defend our freedoms, fearing leftist condemnation, politicians and opinion shapers have permitted themselves to become shackled to ideologies that negate everything for which the free world stands. Israel, which stands on the front lines of freedom, is duty-bound to stem the tide. But our ignoble leaders have preferred to stop thinking and silently surrender.
This is how a civilization collapses.
Thankfully there are a few blogs that are raising these issues that are becoming very popular and at last the message is getting out.
One of the best selling books at the moment is called "Letter to Lady Liberty" which is a book written by a former conservative member of parliament. Letter to lady liberty implies a letter to the United States (the statute of liberty).
Here is a synopsis of the book:
"Western Values in Danger
The goal of militant and imperialist Islam is absolute grandiose and global. The first step to world supremacy is to turn Europe into a Eurabia. The methods are not by armies, but combinations of oil, emigration, fertility, exploitation of tolerance and democracy, spread of fear, uninhibited terrorism, and millenial patience.
So far, Europe has been asleep. A confused continent, without a gathering purpose, and without sustainable integration policies, is at a loss what to do.
The Euro-Arab “bridge-building measures” are self-deceiving, as long as there is only one-way traffic on the bridge.
The author maintains the United States the only power in the world that may secure the world’s free nations. He is discussing the growing anti-Americanism in Europe, a phenomenon evolving despite America’s role as a guaranteeing force for democracy and freedom. Anti-American sleepwalkers do not see that if the American way goes down the drain, Europe will follow.
Hallgrim Berg attacks international leftism, which is constantly marketing twisted stereotypes of America, and is also criticizing the feebleness of European politicians, particularly France, where hypocrisy is developed into mastery.
Challenged by the most comprising and hard-core totalitarianism the world has seen, the only hope for Western democracy, culture, and our way of living is a more confident cooperation and pooling of resources among European nations and the United States."
The author, Hallgrim Berg, was incidently listed by the late Oriana Fallaci as one of the last heros of Europe, when he attacked the Eurabians in the Europan parliament, and stood up for liberty and the European way of life.
As for the original Norwegian constitution and our big celebration of it... One of the main stories I remember growing up with was Wergeland's, one of our national poets, fight against the "jewish paragrap" in the constitution. He argued against it mostly based on Christian scripture (also somewhat on the liberal tradition of the enlightenment), and won trough.
The constitution of 1814 (which btw was heavily influenced by the U.S. constitution) was ammended in 1851 and the jewish paragraph was removed. Oddly enough, the jesuit part was kept, and only removed in the 1950's.
I hope that Norwegians will be able to set it right. In one way, I think that the main problem with Norway is that liberalims has gone too far with its PC excesses. I do not think that outright anti-semitism has played a major factor in contemporary Norwegian politics.
Unfortunately real anti-semitism is growing rapidly in tune with muslim immigration.
However, the grass roots in Norway are very different from the elites in government and the media.
Frankly, I am somewhat hopeful. The "awakening" is increasing in pace and magnitude.
Our next parliamentarian elections is in 2009, and a lot of analysts now predict that the pro American, pro-Israel progress party will lead the next government.
Cheers.
I suspect that this will be the path that many Europeans will take as they regain their sanity.
It is vital that Europeans develop an alternative media; this was what turned the tide in the US, when a counter-active voice challenged the assumptions of the prevailing world view of the Leftists institutions.
Internet bloggers are the modern-day pampheteers.
It is interesting that a few of the leading voices for liberty in the Norwegian debate these days are former leftists.
It is true to some extent, as Ronald Reagan said, the party left me not the other way around.
Olden day liberals would turn in their graves if they could witness what their contemporaries are up to.
BTW, I am a liberal in the classical sense. I have always been
supportive of the classical liberal values. That is partly why I have since as long as I can remember been an admirerer of the United States. When I was very young I thought that these values could be found among leftist parties. But, I eventually realised that the most valiant defenders of these values that I cherish are found among "conservatives"
This is the journey that I took, and that more people must undertake.
Then, there is hope.
Cheers.
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