Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Norwegian Lawyers Should Rather Sue Their Own Government
VG reports that six Norwegian lawyers have filed a suit in Norway asking that a number of Israeli politicians and military personnel are arrested if they ever come to Norway. The reasoning is that the Jewish individuals named in the law suit ordered the recent attacks on the Arab terrorist organization Hamas.
The six Norwegian lawyers should be able to keep themselves busy if they intend to sue any foreign national that potentially has committed crimes against the vague concept of "international law". In order to relieve themselves of this burden, the lawyers have decided to single out a limited number of Jewish politicians, though their decision obviously has nothing to do with anti-semitism. It is simply a pure coincidence that they have chosen to focus only on Jewish individuals.
With the logic they are using, perhaps the lawyers should also sue their own government for complicity in the killing of civilians in Afghanistan. Norway has had military forces in Afghanistan for quite some time, and Norwegians are certainly indirectly or directly responsible for some of the civilian deaths that have occurred during the last few years.
The six Norwegian lawyers should be able to keep themselves busy if they intend to sue any foreign national that potentially has committed crimes against the vague concept of "international law". In order to relieve themselves of this burden, the lawyers have decided to single out a limited number of Jewish politicians, though their decision obviously has nothing to do with anti-semitism. It is simply a pure coincidence that they have chosen to focus only on Jewish individuals.
With the logic they are using, perhaps the lawyers should also sue their own government for complicity in the killing of civilians in Afghanistan. Norway has had military forces in Afghanistan for quite some time, and Norwegians are certainly indirectly or directly responsible for some of the civilian deaths that have occurred during the last few years.
Labels: international law, israel, law suit, norway, war crimes
Monday, April 06, 2009
Exaggerated Media Exposure On Israel
Norwegian leftists love to argue that criticizing Israel is not the same as being anti-Semitic, and they are obviously correct. The problem is when Israel is held to completely different standards than other countries. Also, the media attention on Israel is completely overblown compared with other more serious conflicts around the world.
A Google search of Dagbladet for "Israel 2009" gives 40,900 search results. A search for "Sri Lanka 2009" will give you only 1,520 search results, though the humanitarian situation is much more serious in Sri Lanka. A search using Dagbladet's own search function provides 11978 results for "Israel", while a search for "Sri Lanka" only gives 1609 results.
The hostility to Israel in Norway is mainly caused by the exaggerated media exposure and often one-sided criticism of Israel. While human rights violations in most other countries will be completely ignored, Norway's media will report on even minor developments in Israel's conflict with the surrounding Arab population.
As The Economist commented earlier this year:
"Of course, people are entitled to expect a Westernised democracy such as Israel to behave better than Syria, Russia or the violent Islamists of Hamas. But they are not entitled to hold Israel to a standard they do not observe themselves. The killing of civilians is a sadly common occurrence in war. American forces are accused of having killed hundreds of civilians when they recaptured the Iraqi city of Fallujah from Islamist insurgents in 2004. American and European air forces have killed thousands of civilians in air raids in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. So it has been immensely sad, and grotesquely unfair, to watch protesters in London and Paris accusing Israel of behaving as the Nazis did. Just as Israel deserves no special favours when it comes to the prosecution of war crimes, so it should not be singled out while others go unpunished. That will only deepen the misplaced conviction of too many Israelis that a nation in a sea of enemies must in the end survive mainly by the sword".
Dagbladet is continuing its obsessive coverage of a couple of articles that were featured in the Jerusalem Post. Being a tiny country, Norwegians are extremely interested and concerned about what foreign countries are thinking of Norway, but Dagbladet is really going overboard this time around. The top story in VG deals with accusations that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza earlier this year, though VG is also trying to compete on the Jersualem Post story.
Anyone interested in real news may be interested to read that The Guardian reports from Sri Lanka that "the displaced civilian population is suffering a fresh wave of human rights violations including arbitrary arrests and abductions". A story published by ReliefWeb claims that 2 million people are at risk in Congo, and an article in the Herald Tribune reports how at least 400,000 people have been killed in Darfur during the last three years (countries like China and Sudan are largely to blame, but Norwegians can not be bothered about these issues).
A Google search of Dagbladet for "Israel 2009" gives 40,900 search results. A search for "Sri Lanka 2009" will give you only 1,520 search results, though the humanitarian situation is much more serious in Sri Lanka. A search using Dagbladet's own search function provides 11978 results for "Israel", while a search for "Sri Lanka" only gives 1609 results.
The hostility to Israel in Norway is mainly caused by the exaggerated media exposure and often one-sided criticism of Israel. While human rights violations in most other countries will be completely ignored, Norway's media will report on even minor developments in Israel's conflict with the surrounding Arab population.
As The Economist commented earlier this year:
"Of course, people are entitled to expect a Westernised democracy such as Israel to behave better than Syria, Russia or the violent Islamists of Hamas. But they are not entitled to hold Israel to a standard they do not observe themselves. The killing of civilians is a sadly common occurrence in war. American forces are accused of having killed hundreds of civilians when they recaptured the Iraqi city of Fallujah from Islamist insurgents in 2004. American and European air forces have killed thousands of civilians in air raids in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. So it has been immensely sad, and grotesquely unfair, to watch protesters in London and Paris accusing Israel of behaving as the Nazis did. Just as Israel deserves no special favours when it comes to the prosecution of war crimes, so it should not be singled out while others go unpunished. That will only deepen the misplaced conviction of too many Israelis that a nation in a sea of enemies must in the end survive mainly by the sword".
Dagbladet is continuing its obsessive coverage of a couple of articles that were featured in the Jerusalem Post. Being a tiny country, Norwegians are extremely interested and concerned about what foreign countries are thinking of Norway, but Dagbladet is really going overboard this time around. The top story in VG deals with accusations that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza earlier this year, though VG is also trying to compete on the Jersualem Post story.
Anyone interested in real news may be interested to read that The Guardian reports from Sri Lanka that "the displaced civilian population is suffering a fresh wave of human rights violations including arbitrary arrests and abductions". A story published by ReliefWeb claims that 2 million people are at risk in Congo, and an article in the Herald Tribune reports how at least 400,000 people have been killed in Darfur during the last three years (countries like China and Sudan are largely to blame, but Norwegians can not be bothered about these issues).
Labels: anti-semitism, exposure, israel, norwegian media
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Why Did Not Kristin Halvorsen Leave The Demonstration?
It is possible that the Norwegian Finance Minister Halvorsen participated in a demonstration on January 8, and not January 10 as stated in my original blog entry. The actual date does not matter, however, as the outcome and content of the different anti-Israeli demonstrations were fairly identical. In fact, I previously posted a video of the January 8 demonstrations.
The blog "Tundra Tabloids" raises some good points regarding this issue, though it also acknowledges that Ms. Halvorsen did not shout any anti-Semitic slogans:
"What is one to think of a politician who understands well enough that, shouting "death to the Jews" is wrong, and doesn't want to be depicted as doing such a thing, but more than willing to participate in a demonstration with those who were doing just that? Kristin Halvorsen is of course justified in wanting to correct the facts to the J'lem Post story, but will she ever apologize for participation in an event where people were in fact shouting "death to the Jews"? I doubt it".
The blog "Tundra Tabloids" raises some good points regarding this issue, though it also acknowledges that Ms. Halvorsen did not shout any anti-Semitic slogans:
"What is one to think of a politician who understands well enough that, shouting "death to the Jews" is wrong, and doesn't want to be depicted as doing such a thing, but more than willing to participate in a demonstration with those who were doing just that? Kristin Halvorsen is of course justified in wanting to correct the facts to the J'lem Post story, but will she ever apologize for participation in an event where people were in fact shouting "death to the Jews"? I doubt it".
Labels: anti-semitism, hamas, israel, kristin halvorsen
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Hamas Stole Aid Intended for Gaza
According to The International Herald Tribune, "UN says Hamas stole aid intended for Gazans". Israel has been allowing approximately 200 truckloads of humanitarian aid into Gaza on a daily basis since the end of the campaign, though the article does not mention how much aid Egypt has allowed to pass through its borders.
Also, human rights groups have commented that an investigation of Hamas war crimes is not necessary as its actions constitute blatant war crimes not worthy of investigation.
The Norwegian tabloids VG & Dagbladet are ignoring these stories, and instead focus on a Norwegian politician that recently made a trip to the Gaza Strip and Israel. VG and Dagbladet also published articles on wreckage that needs to be removed from the Gaza Strip.
Currently, the crisis in Sri Lanka is getting zero coverage on the front pages of Dagbladet and VG. James Dunnigan posted an interesting article yesterday titled "Why Israel Is Special". He writes in the article about how approximately 300,000 people have been killed in fighting in Sudan during the last few years, around 5 million have died indirectly or directly as a result of the war in Congo during the last decade, and almost 100,000 have been killed in Sri Lanka during the last 25 years. Still, all the world's focus is on Israel and the "horrible" Jews, though the number of dead in the Israel-Arab conflict is relatively minimal compared to other conflicts. As he ends his essay; "Go Figure".
Update 1: VG has posted a small article covering an amnesty offered to the Tamil rebels by the government in Colombo. Dagbladet is still ignoring the Sri Lanka crisis, not to mention any stories stories from Africa. Instead, Dagbladet has posted a one-sided story (the sources are Al Jadeed og Al Jazeera) about a boat with emergency aid that was stopped on its way to Gaza. The ship is apparently trying to access Gaza without Israeli permission, and has several Palestinian activists onboard the ship. It seems the activists are more interested in media attention than they are in delivering the aid. Since it surely is not possible for them to ensure that the aid does not end up in the arms of Hamas, perhaps they ought to sail on to Sri Lanka?
Also, human rights groups have commented that an investigation of Hamas war crimes is not necessary as its actions constitute blatant war crimes not worthy of investigation.
The Norwegian tabloids VG & Dagbladet are ignoring these stories, and instead focus on a Norwegian politician that recently made a trip to the Gaza Strip and Israel. VG and Dagbladet also published articles on wreckage that needs to be removed from the Gaza Strip.
Currently, the crisis in Sri Lanka is getting zero coverage on the front pages of Dagbladet and VG. James Dunnigan posted an interesting article yesterday titled "Why Israel Is Special". He writes in the article about how approximately 300,000 people have been killed in fighting in Sudan during the last few years, around 5 million have died indirectly or directly as a result of the war in Congo during the last decade, and almost 100,000 have been killed in Sri Lanka during the last 25 years. Still, all the world's focus is on Israel and the "horrible" Jews, though the number of dead in the Israel-Arab conflict is relatively minimal compared to other conflicts. As he ends his essay; "Go Figure".
Update 1: VG has posted a small article covering an amnesty offered to the Tamil rebels by the government in Colombo. Dagbladet is still ignoring the Sri Lanka crisis, not to mention any stories stories from Africa. Instead, Dagbladet has posted a one-sided story (the sources are Al Jadeed og Al Jazeera) about a boat with emergency aid that was stopped on its way to Gaza. The ship is apparently trying to access Gaza without Israeli permission, and has several Palestinian activists onboard the ship. It seems the activists are more interested in media attention than they are in delivering the aid. Since it surely is not possible for them to ensure that the aid does not end up in the arms of Hamas, perhaps they ought to sail on to Sri Lanka?
Labels: gaza, hamas, israel, norway, sri lanka, sudan
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
UN School In Gaza Was Not Bombed
Following courageous reporting by Patrick Martin of The Globe and Mail, it has now been established that the UN school in Gaza was not bombed after all. Read more about his findings at Honest Reporting.
I am glad to see that the tabloid VG is covering the story, though they are not very willing to admit their error. The title simply reads "Israeli grenades killed 40 civilians outside of school, not inside".
While it is natural to question what 40 civilians were doing walking around outside the school perimeters, the big question is why the UN has not previously made public that the school was not shelled. For example, the UNRWA's operations director in Gaza condemned the attack and suggested Israel knew it was targeting a UN school simply because Israel had the GPS coordinates of all UN facilities in the area.
In other boring stories today, UPDF peacekeepers in Somalia have been accused of shooting and killing up to 40 civilians. Luckily we do not need to care as that is taking place in Africa. Also, Sri Lanka is continuing to shell hospitals and civilians, but Norwegian socialists (including madmen Mads Gilbert & Erik Fosse + disgraced diplomat Trine Lilleng) do not need to play outraged, but can sit back and relax as no Jews are involved.
I am glad to see that the tabloid VG is covering the story, though they are not very willing to admit their error. The title simply reads "Israeli grenades killed 40 civilians outside of school, not inside".
While it is natural to question what 40 civilians were doing walking around outside the school perimeters, the big question is why the UN has not previously made public that the school was not shelled. For example, the UNRWA's operations director in Gaza condemned the attack and suggested Israel knew it was targeting a UN school simply because Israel had the GPS coordinates of all UN facilities in the area.
In other boring stories today, UPDF peacekeepers in Somalia have been accused of shooting and killing up to 40 civilians. Luckily we do not need to care as that is taking place in Africa. Also, Sri Lanka is continuing to shell hospitals and civilians, but Norwegian socialists (including madmen Mads Gilbert & Erik Fosse + disgraced diplomat Trine Lilleng) do not need to play outraged, but can sit back and relax as no Jews are involved.
Labels: false, gaza, israel, reporting, school, shelling, UN
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Revised Gaza Strip Death Figures
I found an interesting article that gives a revised figure for the number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip. According to the doctor, who ironically works in Gaza's Shifa Hospital (from which the Norwegian Hamas supporters Gilbert & Fosse reported during the midst of the battle), the number of dead stands at no more than 500 or 600. Most of the latter were Hamas members.
Dagbladet is reporting another story about Israel bombing a military target in Gaza. Apparently no one was injured or killed in the attack, but a staged picture (showing a man and a little boy sitting on the rubble of the building) still give the impression this was an attack on civilians. VG makes a big deal about some diplomats held up at the Gaza border for 6 hours (security at the border is understandably strict as a soldier was killed in at attack yesterday). Some warning shots were also fired while a Norwegian diplomat was sitting in a car nearby. There is also a story about the UN requesting $613 million in aid for Gaza.
While these non-stories receive lots of coverage, the Norwegian tabloids are completely ignoring the 100 civilians massacred in Congo.
Dagbladet is reporting another story about Israel bombing a military target in Gaza. Apparently no one was injured or killed in the attack, but a staged picture (showing a man and a little boy sitting on the rubble of the building) still give the impression this was an attack on civilians. VG makes a big deal about some diplomats held up at the Gaza border for 6 hours (security at the border is understandably strict as a soldier was killed in at attack yesterday). Some warning shots were also fired while a Norwegian diplomat was sitting in a car nearby. There is also a story about the UN requesting $613 million in aid for Gaza.
While these non-stories receive lots of coverage, the Norwegian tabloids are completely ignoring the 100 civilians massacred in Congo.
Labels: casualties, civilian, death, gaza, hamas, israel
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