Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Norwegian Diplomat Should Get Fired
A Norwegian diplomat has been sending emails from her Foreign Ministry email account where she has been comparing Israel's anti-terrorism activities in the Gaza strip with the Holocaust.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the person in question is Trine Lilleng, first secretary at the Norwegian Embassy in Riyadh. Since the Jerusalem Post has a copy of her email, and Trine Lilleng has admitted to sending the it, there is little reason to doubt the credibility of this information.
Interestingly, Trine Lilleng also created a scandal in 2007 when she published confidential information in a blog. Hopefully, her actions this time will be sufficient to have her fired. Trine Lilleng does not deserve the honor of representing Norway in a foreign country. Since she is stationed in Saudi-Arabia, wouldn't it be more appropriate if she spent her time standing up for human rights in Saudi-Arabia and to fight against its gender apartheid?
This week's edition of The Economist comments how Israel is held to different standards than other countries:
"Some of the hypocrisy in the Arab world is unspeakable. Syria, for example, is one country to accuse Israel of “genocide”. But in 1982, when Syria’s own Muslim Brotherhood rebelled in the Syrian city of Hama, the regime responded by shelling the city indiscriminately for three weeks, killing about 20,000 or 30,000 civilians. In Gaza Israel has killed 1,000 people. It is not playing by Hama rules, let alone committing genocide. Russia’s onslaught on the Chechen city of Grozny in the mid-1990s is reckoned to have killed some 20,000 civilians. As for Hamas itself, it deliberately murdered hundreds of Israeli civilians in buses and restaurants in the intifada of 2001-03".
I understand, but do not necessarily agree, with the argument that the civilian casualties in Gaza have been too high to justify Israel's campaign against Hamas. However, comparing Israel's actions to the Nazis is simply ridiculous.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the person in question is Trine Lilleng, first secretary at the Norwegian Embassy in Riyadh. Since the Jerusalem Post has a copy of her email, and Trine Lilleng has admitted to sending the it, there is little reason to doubt the credibility of this information.
Interestingly, Trine Lilleng also created a scandal in 2007 when she published confidential information in a blog. Hopefully, her actions this time will be sufficient to have her fired. Trine Lilleng does not deserve the honor of representing Norway in a foreign country. Since she is stationed in Saudi-Arabia, wouldn't it be more appropriate if she spent her time standing up for human rights in Saudi-Arabia and to fight against its gender apartheid?This week's edition of The Economist comments how Israel is held to different standards than other countries:
"Some of the hypocrisy in the Arab world is unspeakable. Syria, for example, is one country to accuse Israel of “genocide”. But in 1982, when Syria’s own Muslim Brotherhood rebelled in the Syrian city of Hama, the regime responded by shelling the city indiscriminately for three weeks, killing about 20,000 or 30,000 civilians. In Gaza Israel has killed 1,000 people. It is not playing by Hama rules, let alone committing genocide. Russia’s onslaught on the Chechen city of Grozny in the mid-1990s is reckoned to have killed some 20,000 civilians. As for Hamas itself, it deliberately murdered hundreds of Israeli civilians in buses and restaurants in the intifada of 2001-03".
I understand, but do not necessarily agree, with the argument that the civilian casualties in Gaza have been too high to justify Israel's campaign against Hamas. However, comparing Israel's actions to the Nazis is simply ridiculous.
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The diplomat, Trine Lilleng, is female. Also, telling the truth should not be dangerous, nor should being an idiot. But the latter should get you fired from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.
In Norway we like telling the truth, and this IS the truth.. The Israelis have forgotten what happened to themselves in the past, and is now putting the palestinians throught very similar things. Shame on them.
Lets see if the Palestinian people get the same sympathy the jews have benefitted from over the past 60 years, eh?
Lets see if the Palestinian people get the same sympathy the jews have benefitted from over the past 60 years, eh?
# posted by 
: 4:29 PM
: 4:29 PM
The Holocaust was a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by the Nazis and killed approximately six million European Jews during World War II.
How is this comparable to anything that Israel has done in Gaza?
Do you understand what the word exterminate means?
How is this comparable to anything that Israel has done in Gaza?
Do you understand what the word exterminate means?
I am afraid Trine Lilleng (and Rune) expresses a view that is not far from a mainstream opinion of Israel in Norway today. Sadly this means that a large number of Norwegians are idiots. (And the same people are usually talking about the disproportionality of Israels response...)
# posted by : 4:38 PM
: 4:38 PM
korfor i svarte kan ikkje jøder også glemme, tenk på japan som fikk 2 atombomber i hodet,dei går ikkje runt og er sure dei enda, jødane bruker antisemetissme på samme måte som rassisme, det går helt motsatt vei, vanlige folk kan ikkje sei ka dei vil, dette er helt idiotisk, jødane må innse att dei her har feil og att dei drep uskyldige barn,kvinner og eldre, hundar kaller man slikt.
# posted by : 4:39 PM
: 4:39 PM
"How is this comparable to anything that Israel has done in Gaza?"
You mean the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent people? Forcing people to live in camps for years without being able to leave? Helicopters constantly hanging over to see what is going on? Spyplanes keeping control over the palestinian people?
OK, no gas chambers yet, but if the Israeli people where left to continue who is to say where this would end?
You tell me janhoo, it seems they are putting history to good use.
You mean the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent people? Forcing people to live in camps for years without being able to leave? Helicopters constantly hanging over to see what is going on? Spyplanes keeping control over the palestinian people?
OK, no gas chambers yet, but if the Israeli people where left to continue who is to say where this would end?
You tell me janhoo, it seems they are putting history to good use.
# posted by : 4:47 PM
: 4:47 PM
Junior ranking empoyees of the embassy should have learned that foreign policy is decided i Oslo by our state secretary and the gouvernment. This is NOT anything this woman should meddle with! Her job is to represent Norway, and the Norways official policy, not herself and she is not supposed to present her own personal feelings. If she fails to understand this she is simply not fitted for a job at an embassy! If Jonas G. Store is a man and not a mouse he should se to it that she is fired at once.
# posted by : 4:55 PM
: 4:55 PM
"You mean the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent people?"
When did Israel kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people? Even if they did, this would not be extermination (deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group).
The Gaza strip has a border with Egypt, the West Bank shares a border with Jordan, which was part of the British Mandate of Palestine. In other words, these territories are not fenced in by Israel.
When did Israel kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people? Even if they did, this would not be extermination (deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group).
The Gaza strip has a border with Egypt, the West Bank shares a border with Jordan, which was part of the British Mandate of Palestine. In other words, these territories are not fenced in by Israel.
This is not the first time a Norwegian has compared the IDF with the SS. My UNIFIL battalion Commander managed to publicly state that the Israeli-controlled Security Police in S. Lebanon used the same methods that the SS did (when it comes to terror). But he too kept his job.
And Israels problem is that every time their armed forces sink into unneeded brutality or acts of terror they, not the world, trample on the memory of the millions of jews that died.
However, it is unfortunate that the fate of the Israeli state is to have to live with the palestinians, a people that command very little sympathy in regions that have housed a large number of them (if not, why did they have to leave Jordan, Lebanon, Libya...).
Its not fair to compare a wall built to keep terrorists outside Israel to a fence built to keep jews inside Treblinka.
And Israels problem is that every time their armed forces sink into unneeded brutality or acts of terror they, not the world, trample on the memory of the millions of jews that died.
However, it is unfortunate that the fate of the Israeli state is to have to live with the palestinians, a people that command very little sympathy in regions that have housed a large number of them (if not, why did they have to leave Jordan, Lebanon, Libya...).
Its not fair to compare a wall built to keep terrorists outside Israel to a fence built to keep jews inside Treblinka.
# posted by : 4:58 PM
: 4:58 PM
It just reflects the distorted views of many Norwegians, a mirror image of reality!
Maybe they should post her in the Congo?
Maybe they should post her in the Congo?
# posted by : 5:02 PM
: 5:02 PM
"The Gaza strip has a border with Egypt"
- Yes they do, but they are NOT allowed to use it.. Egypt has been told (by way of generious "donations" from USA, Israels big brother) to close the border with Gaza in order to stop weapons being taken into Gaza. Unfortunately this also stops innocent palestinias who wants to go on holiday, do their shopping in Egypt, etc. So yes, Gaza is very much a closed camp.. They are not ALLOWED to leave..
- Yes they do, but they are NOT allowed to use it.. Egypt has been told (by way of generious "donations" from USA, Israels big brother) to close the border with Gaza in order to stop weapons being taken into Gaza. Unfortunately this also stops innocent palestinias who wants to go on holiday, do their shopping in Egypt, etc. So yes, Gaza is very much a closed camp.. They are not ALLOWED to leave..
# posted by : 5:03 PM
: 5:03 PM
This Rune is a very sick person. This is a person masquerading as a humanitarian, pretending to care about people yet in the same paragraph talks about how Israelis "benefitted" from the sympathy from the Holocaust. This is such a sick point of view and I wonder if most Norwegians are thinking along these lines. What a shame.
The other poster screaming about "hundreds of thousands" killed just shows the ignorance of people who claim to know about the conflict. I'm sure it would come as a surprise to these people if they knew that in the 60+ years of this conflict that 60k have been killed on all sides. I'm sure it would also surprise people to learn that Jordan is 75% of the original Palestinian Mandate. But these are things you learn from books, and not from blogs such as those of Trine Lilleng.
The other poster screaming about "hundreds of thousands" killed just shows the ignorance of people who claim to know about the conflict. I'm sure it would come as a surprise to these people if they knew that in the 60+ years of this conflict that 60k have been killed on all sides. I'm sure it would also surprise people to learn that Jordan is 75% of the original Palestinian Mandate. But these are things you learn from books, and not from blogs such as those of Trine Lilleng.
# posted by : 6:49 PM
: 6:49 PM
Perhaps, the Runes of this world ought to impress on their Hamasnik buddies the desirability of stopping loud and constant pronouncements regarding their longing for Israel's extinction and desist from years of continuous and systematic rocketing and mortaring (not to mention suicide bombing) of civilian targets across the border.
Then, maybe, the day will come when border controls will not be necessary.
However, nothing in this world will change the simplistic, hate filled mindset of the Rune types. Not even the cost they inflict upon themselves by publicly spouting obvious, childish lies and nonsense.
Then, maybe, the day will come when border controls will not be necessary.
However, nothing in this world will change the simplistic, hate filled mindset of the Rune types. Not even the cost they inflict upon themselves by publicly spouting obvious, childish lies and nonsense.
# posted by : 7:56 PM
: 7:56 PM
I think Norwegian Foreign Ministry should ask Mossad to stop spying on Norwegian diplomats and break into internal systems to read their emails as well.
It's an ugly PR war..
It's an ugly PR war..
# posted by : 8:10 PM
: 8:10 PM
Taking the Hamas side in this conflict is stupid, because no Arab country is taking Hamas side. However, since the diplomat in quesiton is an official and is attempting to run her own foreign policy, which is different from the one of the Foreign Ministry, she has to be fired. The Norway official position is that it doesn't talk to Hamas until it joints the unity government. The position of this diplomat seriously complicates Norway's stance in the Middle East.
# posted by : 11:12 AM
: 11:12 AM
Hamas' state goal is to annihilate Israel. It doesn't hide it. Why should a Norwegian diplomat take Hamas side in this war. Nazi killed Jews because they were born as Jews. Hamas is doing the same. If anything Hamas = Nazi. Trine Lilleng = Hamas.
# posted by : 11:15 AM
: 11:15 AM
Rune, you are a liar. Israel doesn't tell Egypt to keep its border with Gaza closed. Egypt is afraid of Hamas like any other Arab country, because Hamas is working for Iran. Apparently you are an Iranian stooge too.
# posted by : 11:19 AM
: 11:19 AM
I admired Norway for her 1940 fight against the Nazis led by King Haakon. It is appalling that this Trine Lilleng should debase her country, and have so many supporters. Anti-Semitism needs no reality to flourish; people believe what they want to believe. For the record, we don't run the world, don't use blood to make matzah, don't control international finance and the press, except by superior ability. We're generally brighter, more ambitious, hard-working, productive and humane than other ethnic groups. How many Palestinians have contributed anything in science, art, literature? Jews, 14 million world-wide, have won more Nobels than any other group. Jews did the cell phone, polio vaccine, Relativity, lox, etc. What have you Norwegians done lately?
'Against stupidity, the gods are powerless.'
Contemptuously,
William Goldsmith, M.D.
'Against stupidity, the gods are powerless.'
Contemptuously,
William Goldsmith, M.D.
There are many conflicts in our troubled world which we only know about from the world press.It is no secret that much of the information we are fed is biased depending on the agenda of the particular media.I am pretty sure that Trine Lilleng has never visited Israel or many of the countries where hundreds of thousands are being killed.The Norwegian People are a great people and are very liberal.I have met many of them but like every nation they have some citizens who without being informed spread information which is unreliable.We all experience great pain when we read of the sufferings of citizens of Congo,Daphur,Burma etc but there is such a lobby supporting regimes of countries carrying out terror & killing that we rather choose a small country like Israel which is a popular country to bash.Whilst tens of thousands were being slaughtered in Seri Lanka Ceylon no one took to the streets of large capitals like London to protest But when Israel conducted a limited campaign in Gaza the whole world rose up in fury!Trine Lilleng should try and visit our region to understand the problems & possibly help solve them
David Goshen 8/40 Hakeshet Street Kiryat Ono 55401 Israel
David Goshen 8/40 Hakeshet Street Kiryat Ono 55401 Israel
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