Sweden’s Tilt Toward the Palestinians

swThe newly elected Swedish government of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven began its term with a clear pro-Palestinian tilt. In his inaugural speech on October 3, 2014, PM Lofven declared that his left-center Social-Democrat party led government would recognize the state of Palestine. “The conflict between Israel and Palestine can only be solved with a two-state solution, negotiated in accordance with international law. The two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to co-exist peacefully. Sweden will therefore recognize the state of Palestine.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the Swedish government’s statement the following day saying that “Unilateral steps would not advance peace, but would, rather, push it off.”

The US was also unhappy with the unilateral Swedish move. US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called international recognition of a Palestinian state “premature,” and said, “We believe that the process is one that has to be worked out through the parties to agree on the terms of how they will live in the future of two states living side-by-side.”

Responding to the Swedish Prime Minister’s announcement, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman wrote an exclusive Op Ed in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. “This announcement” Lieberman wrote, “was not intended to serve as a genuine solution to a foreign problem. It was intended, so it seems, to placate a certain sector in Swedish public opinion. It is to be regretted when internal considerations determine a counterproductive and irresponsible foreign policy.”

Lieberman added, “With the entire Middle East aflame, not to mention other regions in the world experiencing strife and instability, the undue focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict runs counter to all logic. Beyond reflecting internal matters, it seems that this focus serves to compensate for the many failings that the organized international community has encountered in attempting to resolve the many complex problems on the global agenda. For some reason, five words are spoken of time and again as both an imperative and as a magical solution to many other problems in the region: resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Lieberman went on to say, “In recent years the Middle East has been swept by an ocean of violence and bloodshed, none of which has anything to do with Israel or the Palestinians. Three years of civil war in Syria have seen over 200,000 Syrians lose their lives. Iraq is on the verge of disintegration and since the toppling of Saddam Hussein, has witnessed over 130,000 Iraqi citizens killed. Libya has already broken apart, its revolution resulting in some 15,000 Libyan killed. In Darfur, some 400,000 people have been killed since 2003, and since the eruption of civil war in South Sudan in 2013, some 10,000 people have lost their lives.”

Clearly showing the hypocrisy of the Swedish government policy toward Israel, FM Lieberman continued, “Since (President) Hassan Rouhani’s assumption of office, over 800 Iranians have been executed by the Iranian regime, including journalists, poets, intellectuals and women accused of ‘immodesty.’ Where is Sweden’s outrage? Where is the call for an urgent solution to this burning matter? In addition, as the world has witnessed all too vividly in recent weeks, fanatic (Muslim) terrorist organizations such ISIS (now called Islamic State-IS), Al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Hamas have been committing countless atrocities, some of them even aspiring to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”

Lieberman questioned why the new Swedish Prime Minister chose to ignore these developments and chose instead to hone in on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. He called it not merely a matter of “imbalance,” but a matter of fundamental “unfairness.” Lieberman attacked the hypocrisy of the loud European (and Swedish) voices protesting “disproportionality” regarding Palestinian casualties in Gaza, when the Palestinians themselves initiated the violence against Israel and its civilians. Lieberman undoubtedly raged in his mind over the Swedish obsession with blaming Israel “when much of the world around us is blazing.”

In concluding his Op Ed piece in the Swedish Dagens Nyheter, Lieberman wrote: “Friendly governments do not act so as to undermine the national security of their friends, and do not presume to know better than their friends how they should contend with the many challenges they face. The Swedish government would do well to rethink its intention to act in this way towards its friend Israel. In doing so, it will not only correct an unfortunate error, it will contribute to the promotion of an agreed upon settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

To understand why Sweden is tilting toward the Palestinians, it is important to note that the problem today is not with traditional anti-Semitism, but rather a new kind of hate, which is derived primarily from the failure to distinguish between Israel, Zionism, and the local Jewish communities, when it comes to political discourse. In fact, anti-Zionism has morphed into anti-Semitism. Moreover, the existence of a large Muslim immigrant community in Sweden, mostly from North Africa and the Middle East is certainly a major factor. Particularly, since the Social Democratic party in Sweden has co-opted the Muslim vote, and anti-Israel announcements resonate well with the Muslim constituency.

In Malmo, Sweden, a recent Israeli-Swedish Tennis match had to be played behind closed doors for fear of Arab and Muslim rioters engaging in violence. In Malmo, where Muslims account for more than 20% of the population, Jews and Israelis are unwelcome, and are threatened with violence. The Swedish government is either intimidated or reluctant to implement the rule of law. The Mayor of Malmo stated recently that Malmo “does not accept Zionism,” and that Swedish Jews can avoid anti-Semitism by publicly opposing the occupation of the West Bank. The left-wing Swedish media, especially the printed press from mainstream Social-Democrat to the Marxist and Communist fringe, are rabidly anti-Israel.

On a recent trip to Stockholm, Sweden, this writer heard from local Jews, especially young people, about their intent to leave Sweden for either Israel or America. The reason given was anti-Semitism. They feel besieged by the increasingly violent and hateful Arab-Muslim community and the reluctance of the Swedish authorities to enforce the law. Sweden has become known as the rape capital of the world, but you would not know that from the Swedish press. The rapes are committed almost exclusively by Muslims. Hosted by Kurdish Muslims in the city, this writer witnessed Swedish authorities’ fear of confronting Muslims, who live in segregated ghettos where no Swedish police can enter.

Former Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazal, pointed out that “as far as Swedes are concerned, Israel is always guilty. It does not matter to them that Israel is being attacked by Hezbollah and Hamas, or that the Palestinian Authority has failed to comply with the Oslo Agreement. Also, Swedes, like other Europeans, feel guilty towards the Third World because of the colonial past. The alliance between radical Islam and the Swedish Marxist left, figures in Sweden’s policy toward Israel. According to Mazal, the Swedish PM’s statement was prompted by an influx of a large Arab minority into Sweden this year.

According to the Times of Israel, the New Leftist Swedish government Housing Minister, Mehmet Kaplan, of Sweden’s Green Party, was arrested in 2010 by Israeli forces as a participant in the Mavi Marmara flotilla, which was headed to the Gaza Strip. The Turkish born Swedish MP was later deported from Israel. Sweden’s new Education Minister Gustav Fridolin, was detained by Israeli forces in 2004 for protesting Israel’s security barrier near Ramallah.

With such characters in the Swedish government, is there any wonder as to why Sweden is tilting toward the Palestinians?

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  • Hank Rearden

    Liberalism can liquidate a society. It cannot build one.

    Sweden is in the process of liquidating its society. God only knows why. But the Swedes were cool with Hitler, so there is a weird strain which runs through them, notwithstanding those golden girls.

    Maybe Sweden has lost all conviction and is therefore drawn to the conviction, however depraved, of Islam. They don’t call it the Stockholm Syndrome for nothing.

    • phoebeintheforest

      Perhaps the Swedes are really at war with the God of the Bible.

      • achantus

        Sweden is an extreme example of a concensus-society. And this is all driven by socialist ideology, though the swedes themselves don’t understand just how socialistic they really are. And socialism is really at war with humankind. So, in a way, the Swedes, like all socialists, are really at war with themselves.

        • UCSPanther

          Sweden has often been compared to the Soviet Union on that front especially.

          It may seem a little less dull and monochromatic, but I suspect that is due to it starting to resemble Yugoslavia, with all the ethnic tension bubbling in the background.

          It’ll get real colorful when it finally blows…

          • uddeboda2

            Yet another dumbo, you can shut your face well

          • UCSPanther

            The truth hurts, doesn’t it. Unfortunately for you, I don’t live in Sweden, so you cannot intimidate me with physical violence like you seem to be fond of.

            You are just like a Soviet Loyalist, trying to defend a failing empire, and desperately trying to ignore the incoming collapse.

            I will have the last laugh when effeminate leftists are trying to survive the nightmare that you wrought and we warned you about…

        • carpe diem 36

          i wish much success to both sides.

        • uddeboda2

          Sweden is NOT socialistic…………the term is social democratic……so until you can use the correct terms DO shut your face

          • UCSPanther

            I will call Sweden a one party communist state, seeing how angry you get.

            U mad?

      • uddeboda2

        The new Swedish government said that they WILL recognise Palestine……not that they HAVE, as of now over 100 countries have recognised Palestine…..so whats your problem, and what has THAT hypocrical book got to do with the matter

        • UCSPanther

          And yet, international recognition of Palestinian Statehood will not be the magic wand that makes all of their self-inflicted problems go away…

    • achantus

      Many of those “golden girls” now use dark hair dye to avoid attracting attention from muslims. It is quite common for Swedish girls to be called “svennehora” (swede-hore) when passing muslims in the street. The politicians are pretending not to know. Now there are even plans to push muslims out into the countryside, so far a bastion of swedish tradition and nationalism. In a few years, there will be no safe haven anywhere, no place where swedes can be themselves. People in neighbouring countries don’t quite know what to make of it all. Of course, the same thing is taking place there too, but sweden is still an extreme example.

      • carpe diem 36

        they are now ignorant about what the mosles are, but soon they will have a real taste of those people they admitted to their homogeneous country, they are and always will be a foreign body in their midst. They will learn to be sorry for what they did to themselves.

  • DontMessWithAmerica

    Perhaps global warming will help the Swedes in a generation or two. Obviously, those long, cold, Swedish winters have atrophied their brains. It would be most appropriate for Israel to totally divorce itself from that lunatic asylum of a country, recall its diplomats, throw out all Swedes in Israel and as for Jews in Sweden, along with any other folks living there who have a brain or conscience, abandon that poor country which is going through a suicidal period. Even their Nobel Prize bunch have shown lunacy in giving Obama the Peace Prize – after that blunder it would be most appropriate for a deserving future recipient to turn it down.

    • uddeboda2

      Shut your gob, racist pig

  • Hard Little Machine

    Sweden’s new do-nothing apologist – the FIRST thing he did when he took the office, because apparently, every other issue and problem in Sweden has been solved, was to declare the Swedish Islamic People’s Republic of Hamas.

    But how is this different from Obama’s FIRST official act as President in 2009 which wast to give an interview to the Arab press extolling the ‘palestinian’ cause?

  • barcs

    Bravo Sweden!

    • UCSPanther

      You’re going to find that “statehood” isn’t a magical wand that will make all of Palestine’s self-inflicted problems that go away…

  • WhiteHunter

    As Hank Rearden points out below, Sweden was “neutral” in WW II, and collaborated amicably (and profitably) with Hitler, without at least the fig leaf of fighting a more dangerous enemy–Stalin–that the Finns had.

    So the only question now is, will the terrorists use the $200 million that Kerry is going to give them (after we borrow the money from China) to buy new Volvos and Saabs for their car bombs, or spend all of it to reload their launchers with missiles bought from North Korea?

    • nobullhere

      I think we know exactly what it will be spent on. Same as usual.

  • garyfouse

    Wow! Jen Psaki actually said something intelligent for a change.

    Sweden also leads Europe in the sheer number of NGOs dedicated to the destruction of Israel. They are a country that has surrendered shamefully to the Islamists in their midst. They don’t even cry out about the rape epidemic in their country. Instead they scream for more multi-culturalism. They have it and they can live with it.

    • uddeboda2

      Rubbish from yet another brain dead indoctrinated Yank

      • garyfouse

        Uddebode2

        Jag hoppas att du trivs er nytt, multi-kulti, anti-Semitisk samhället. Ja, jag är en “brain-dead” Yank. Jag tycker om min sämst fel var att lära mig Svenska. Varför? Jag ska aldrig åka tillbaka i Sverige.

        (Translation: I hope you are enjoying your new, multi-kulti, anti-Semitic society. Yes, I am a “brain dead” Yank. I think my biggest mistake was learning Swedish. What for? I will never return to Sweden.)

        • uddeboda2

          Wowwie, we are lucky here in Sweden that you wont be coming back, yet another arrogant ar$e whole Yank……………..and anybody can use Google to Translate

          • UCSPanther

            I sense envy in your mental rant…

          • uddeboda2

            Not as much as yours

          • UCSPanther

            That is like a North Korean telling me that I am worse off…

  • carpe diem 36

    too bad he did not show where the Palestinian state is located when he declared his support for it. I wish he had done so so that I will be clear if what he meant was not that it should be located when Israel is now.

    • Softly Bob

      I’m quite happy for there to be a Palestinian state and I could show you it on the map.
      You see the Pacific Ocean… well go to the bit where the Marianas trench is. There, that’s where Palestine should be.
      What? There’s no land, you say? Oh well, never mind – they can all learn to swim.

  • PAthena

    Note that calling Arabs “Palestinians” is a consequence of Soviet propaganda. The term “Palestine” was given to Judea by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 135 A.D. after he had defeated the last Jewish rebellion under Bar Kochba. He changed the name of Judea to “Palestina” in order to eradicate all memory of Judea; he outlawed Judaism and renamed Jerusalem “Aelia Capitolina,” “Aelius” being his gens name. “Palestine” then became synonymous with “land of the Jews,” which is why Great Britain after World War I was given the “Palestine Mandate” to be “the homeland of the Jews.” “Palestinian” was synonymous with “Jew.”
    In Cairo in 1964, Gamal Nasser, ruler of Egypt, and the Soviet Union, both haters of Jews, founded the “Palestine Liberation Organization,” (P.L.O.) whose name shows its Soviet origins. This organization came to fame by massacring the Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972, since which time these Arabs have been miscalled “Palestinians.” The Prime Minister of Sweden calls for a state of “Palestine” when there are already many Arab states, ethnically cleansed of Jews. He is an ignoramus.

  • nobullhere

    I have just looked at a snippet on Wikipedia and there are 31.6 guns per 100 residents, and in neighbouring Finland it is 45.3 and Norway 31.3, so there are quite a few guns in circulation in thta neck of the woods. I wonder how long before they take matters into their own hands.

    • uddeboda2

      Of course you didnt read the full article, they are guns used for hunting…………….not as side arms as in the crazy USA…………..guns for hunting that are in secure locked cabinets

  • Ken Kelso

    Sweden is basically apologists for Arab Jihadists and Erdogan.
    Ask yourself, why isn’t Sweden recognizing a Kurdish state in Iraqi Kurdistan.
    Sweden expects Kurds to live under Arab head choppers.

    • uddeboda2

      More crap and BP

  • William James Ward

    The problem in Sweden is the idiocy of leftist multiculturalism.
    What has happened to the Swedish men, why would they allow
    Islamist thugs to take over their lives and rape their women.
    The sickness is in Sweden and now reaches out to Israel as
    a scapegoat for their cowardly behavior……………..William

    • uddeboda2

      More crap and bull poo………….for the past 8 years Sweden has had a conservative government……………..

      • William James Ward

        Idiot!!!

        • uddeboda2

          You sure an idiot, if you believe all the crap that Joseph, “bum licker” Puder…………………..

          • UCSPanther

            If you are that interested in homosexual acts, go out and experiment…

  • JVR

    Sweden took the lead in the fight against apartheid by supporting the ANC financially and morally.

    • WhiteHunter

      The same way the idiot Olaf Palme supported the Viet Cong. Before he got the bullet in the back that he so richly deserved. From a fellow Swede, who was evidently as fed up with him as the rest of the sane world was.

      • uddeboda2

        More babble and squeak

        • MukeNecca

          “More babble and squeak”

          Trying your new moniker? Not bad, not bad…Fits you perfectly.

  • uddeboda2

    One comment to all who know little or nothing about Sweden, her politics, and what she has done in the past decades in helping refugees from war torn countries……….most the result of the USAs aggression………………so all of you kindly SHUT YOUR GOBS

  • MukeNecca

    That “uddebude” thing is most probably a muhammedan anyway. I don’t say that an ethnic Swede may not display udebude*s level of imbecility and vulgarity, but it isn’t so often…

    • WhiteHunter

      I had exactly the same thought.

      • uddeboda2

        Cant you think for yourself then

    • uddeboda2

      Even your MUKE NECCA sound a wee bit strange……….perhaps you are a muslim sucker in your spare time, when mommie lets you out to play

      • MukeNecca

        ”Even your MUKE NECCA sound a wee bit
        strange……….perhaps you are a muslim sucker in your spare time, when mommie lets you out to play

        Hmm, a short sentence, but containing a full journey from obtuseness to incongruence…

        OK, ”wee bit strange” you say.
        Well, “strange” only for the seriously dimwitted.
        An averagely intelligent person has never a problem to understand this quite simple anagram. (you do know what anagram is, or do you?)

        Now how your inability to comprehend this makes you hypothesize I may be a muhammedan is a mystery, or rather, a perfect non-sequitur.
        Also, why and how should anyone chose to be a mohammedan in his “spare time”? Do you have an
        option of being a nasty imbecile, as you appear to, only in your “spare time”?
        Well if so, try to send in a comment when you are really, really busy. If you ever are.

  • http://LiberalPandemic.wordpress.com/ Peter Pocket

    Sweden has become the rape capital of the world, thanks to their Muslim cockroaches raping Swedish women by the hundreds. Diversity bites!

    • uddeboda2

      Damn those Muskits, I am not getting my share………….

  • uddeboda2

    I do love them so much, the girls really are so tight

    • MukeNecca

      woodabooda:

      “the girls really are so tight”

      A fantasy of a poorly endowed.