Norway massacre suspect says he deserves medal

The right-wing extremist who has admitted killing 77 people in Norway's worst peacetime massacre told a court Monday that he deserves a medal of honor for the bloodshed and demanded to be set free.

Anders Behring Breivik, 32, smirked as he was led in to the Oslo district court, handcuffed and dressed in a dark suit, for his last scheduled detention hearing before the trial starts in April. He stretched out his arms in what his lawyer Geir Lippestad called "some kind of right-wing extremist greeting."

Reading from prepared remarks, Breivik told the court that the July 22 massacre - carried out with a bomb, a rifle and a handgun - was a strike against "traitors" who he said are embracing immigration to promote "an Islamic colonization of Norway."

Note EU-Digest: Breivik is fortunate to be living in Norway, a tolerant democratic society. If he had not he would probably already have met his maker.

For more: Norway massacre suspect says he deserves medal

How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the '1 Percent'

While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different.

For more: How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the '1 Percent' | World | AlterNet

The Jerusalem Post: Norway - a paradigm for anti-Semitism - by Manfried Gerstenfeld

For the complete report from the Jerusalem Post click on this link

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.