Sweden's Foreign Minister: "Israel is losing its moral values"

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 2 February 2003 | Herb Keinon

[anotherview]

Sweden's Foreign Minister: "Israel is losing its moral values"
By HERB KEINON

After months of relative quiet from Stockholm, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh again raised eyebrows in Jerusalem with a speech Thursday in which she blasted the Israeli election results and put down Israel’s democracy.

Speaking at an award ceremony in Stockholm where Hanan Ashrawi was awarded the 2002 Olof Palme Award, named after the slain Swedish prime minister, Lindh – in a speech full of praise for Ashrawi - said "I fear that the Palestinian people soon will lose all hope of an independent state, and that Israel will lose its moral values. Israel is a democracy balancing on a thin line."

The result of the Israeli elections, Lindh said, "unfortunately points to continued confrontation, instead of security and of peace. To me this policy is cynical, not the least because Israeli authorities fight the work for reform and peace in the Palestinian Authority.

That was evident when the Israeli government denied three Palestinians to leave the country for a peace conference in London, when universities are closed down, and when timing always seems to be suited to violence, not negotiations."

Lindh also slammed the construction of a wall along the Green Line to foil Palestinian infiltrators. "Now a wall is constructed, about 350 kilometers long, eight meters high by 60 meters broad. Israelis call it protection. Palestinians call it – rightly – confiscation."

One Israeli diplomatic official responded to Lindh's statements, the last in a long list of highly critical comments over the last two years, by saying, "Who is she to moralize to us." The official said that although Lindh is perhaps Israel’s sharpest critic in Europe, "hers is not a lone voice by any means."

Sweden is presently without an ambassador to Israel, since the ambassador – Anders Liden - was recently appointed director-general of the Swedish foreign ministry. As a result, Israel’s Ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, has been instructed to protest Lindh’s speech directly to Liden.

Lindh said that the Palestinian leadership must do everything in its power to stop terrorism, and said Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorism. "But no one can really believe that this is the best way to do it," she said.

[Arpege92]

Sweden should right its wrongs for selling steel to Hitler during World War II before judging others. You could never compare Sweden to Israel....Israel defends itself and Sweden made a huge profit at the expense of humans.

[Ichabod Walrus]

And as I tried to point out before, they didn't do enough during the war to merit more than a footnote in history books, at least in relative terms.

The list of countries, however, which were allies of Hitler that have largely escaped censure is very long. These countries, such as Croatia, not only actively participated in Hitler's campaigns, but actually created genocides of their own, with a barbarity that shocked even their patrons.

Then there are those countries (and institutions) which not only provided safe haven to Nazi garbage, but gave them employment, often in "trades" which would exploit the dubious talents they acquired while part of the Axis. These countries activities' after WWII make Sweden's wartime role look insignificant deed.

[anguish]

Good balanced non-knee-jerk post.

It's not hard to find dark spots in Swedish history, not even for a Swede like myself, but what most people lack is the patience to view actions in their context. While trade with Nazi Germany was a bad thing, one should look at it in the geopolitical and not least military context of the time. As an example - being completely surrounded by axis powers after the invasion of Denmark and Norway didn't make it easier to resist trade.

The same goes for post-war relations with the Baltic states - Russia (Soviet) has always been the no. 1 Swedish enemy - and while sometimes misplaced, Baltic support has always been seen as a way to create a buffert to our arch enemy.

[Gael]

My recollection is that Sweden was threatened with invasion if it refused to permit transit rights to nazi troops, a threat roughly similar to that made by the nazis against Belgrade in ‘41. Perhaps the Swedes could have defied the nazis and accepted the consequences the way the Serbs did, but I submit they would have been foolish to do so. We’ve seen how the Serbs’ wartime sacrifices were repaid by their former allies over the past decade – that’s why the sons and grandsons of nazis now reign in Krajina, Bosnia and Kosovo, the same as their forebears did in 1943.

The people who committed those more recent sins have no standing to condemn Sweden’s decision to stay out of the war.