Norway - a paradigm for anti-Semitism - by Manfried Gerstenfeld
Last week, on four consecutive days, there were anti-Israeli articles in Norway's second-largest daily Aftenposten. The first called for a general boycott of Israel. The second promoted an academic boycott, falsely accusing Israeli physicians of participating in torture and the Israeli Medical Association of remaining silent about it. Any honest debater would have reported that Israeli hospitals routinely treat Palestinian children, some of whom express joy when suicide bombers kill Israelis. One wonders whether any other country would allow this. The third article stressed the right to criticize Israel. This is a typical attack on a "straw man," as nobody denies this right. The fourth claimed that Israel is not a democracy. Only thereafter a pro-Israeli voice was heard. Two years ago the conservative Aftenposten got international attention when it published an op-ed by Jostein Gaarder which until this day remains the vilest anti-Semitic article published in a European mainstream paper since the Second World War.
Note EU-Digest: It is all a question of perception - Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, should be the first to understand that freedom of the press includes being able to accept critique about anything the press can come up with, including acts of arrogance. Unfortunately arrogance and calling anyone who does not agree with Israeli policies anti-Semitic seems to have become a trademark of successive Israeli Governments and some of their supporters.
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