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To: Seydlitz
The problem with Norwegians is two-fold: (1) They don't understand what it is like to live in a heterogenous society, so they assume that any problems in America are the result of our racism; and (2) like most Europeans, they don't like Jews.

(1) is greatly exaggerated, I think. But (2) is just wrong. The liberal media is pounding on Israel all the time, so there is (or was, until this week...) a certain popular support for the Pals. However, dislike of Jews as such is rarely heard of. In all my life I have met one true-blue anti-semite in Norway.

Unlike many other places in Europe, there were never a lot of Jews here and such hostility as existed against them was mostly religiously based rather than racialist. With the securalization of both Christians and Jews, most of this has evaporated, and the sympathy for Jews after World War did away with the rest. Norway was actually a closer friend of Israel than the US until 1967, having her embassy in Jerusalem and supplying Israel with heavy water and equipment for her nukes. This support has slowly dwindled thereafter with the perception that Israel is clinging on to her spoils of war.

Norway was occupied for five years and DID NOT LIKE IT, so there's part of the explanation; certainly more important than antipathy toward Jews. There is more of that in some other European countries that shall go unnamed.

39 posted on 02/08/2006 1:14:27 PM PST by ProudNorseman
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To: ProudNorseman
I can't quite agree with you on Norwegian anti-Semitism. Half of Norway's Jews were killed during WW II. They had little local support, as the Norwegian Jews were descended from German Hanse traders in the late Middle Ages. Accordingly, they have always been considered outsiders, religiously and ethnically. The original Norwegian constitution (1814) even denied citizenship to Jews. Thankfully, Norwegians did defeat a recent attempt at an official ban on Israeli products.

As for occupation, sure the Norwegians didn't like it. That said, 50,000 of them served with the German military in WW II, including 10,000 with the Waffen-SS (Norway officially admits to 7,000 with the SS; the 10,000 number comes from German records). Norway was also the most active particpant in the Lebensborn program: An effort to have local women bear the children of German soldiers.

61 posted on 02/08/2006 6:17:45 PM PST by Seydlitz
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